The Fat Angel Sings

Marissa Nadler has released a new single, and it’s a collaboration with John Cale. Listen to “Poison,” plus another new Nadler song called “If We Make It Through the Summer,” below (via KRO Records). Marissa Nadler said of the collaboration in a statement:

Sometimes it’s best not to know in advance; that’s what I continually remind myself about how this duet with legendary songwriter John Cale came together. Had I known that Justin [Raisen] and Lawrence [Rothman] would arrange for Cale to sing “Poison” with me before I wrote or recorded it, I cannot be certain I wouldn’t have become frozen with hesitations and second-guessing.

How do you even start to go about writing a duet with a member of the Velvet Underground? Surely I might have nervously changed the lyric that accidentally namechecks a title of a Velvet Underground song (“Run Run Run”), at the very least. For me, Cale is one of the most influential rock musicians, remaining admirably hard to pin down. His appearance on this song was a complete surprise to me, but the instant I heard it I knew that this was the way the song was meant to be heard.

Marissa Nadler’s latest album, For My Crimes, came out last year.

Song written by Marissa Nadler

Guitar, vocals- Marissa Nadler Featuring guest vocals by John Cale.