Goth-folk singer-songwriter Marissa Nadler has announced her ninth solo album, Path Of The Clouds, her first since 2018’s For My Crimes (not counting this year’s Instead Of Dreaming covers album). Nadler learned piano during the pandemic, and she composed many of the songs on Path Of The Clouds on keys instead of guitar. Her piano teacher Jesse Chandler, a member of Mercury Rev and Midlake, plays on the LP, and Mary Lattimore, Simon Raymonde, Emma Ruth Rundle, Amber Webber, and Milky Burgess also contribute.

Nadler binge-watched reruns of Unsolved Mysteries in quarantine, and that obsession became the inspiration for much of her songwriting on Path Of The Clouds. Its dreamy lead single “Bessie, Did You Make It?,” out today, is a kind of inversion of the traditional murder ballad template. Thou’s Mitch Wells, who directed the song’s accompanying video, says:

When I first got the chance to hear Marissa’s new album, and was asked, ‘Which song would you like to do a video for?’ I sort of panicked because literally every song is SO good. It was like being at a buffet of all your favorite food and only being able to choose one thing to eat. I had a blast making the video, but there was always the pressure of “don’t let down the song.” It’s such a beautiful opening track and I’m really lucky I was given the chance to be a part of it.

Watch and listen below.

TRACKLIST:
01 “Bessie, Did You Make It?”
02 “The Path of the Clouds”
03 “Couldn’t Have Done The Killing”
04 “If I Could Breathe Underwater”
05 “Elegy”
06 “Well Sometimes You Just Can’t Stay”
07 “From Vapor to Stardust”
08 “Storm”
09 “Turned Into Air”
10 “And I Dream Of Running”
11 “Lemon Queen”

The Path Of The Clouds is out 10/29 on Sacred Bones/Bella Union. Pre-order it here.