Near the beginning of the year, the spectral folk singer Marissa Nadler released a soft glow of an album called July. Today, she’s hitting us with Before July, a digital-only EP that includes four demos — two July songs and two unreleased songs. And it’s also got Nadler’s atmospheric, vaguely gothy cover of “Pitseleh,” a heartbreaker of a song from the late legend Elliott Smith’s 1998 album XO. In Nadler’s hands, the lyrics and melody are the same as they were with the original, but the arrangement is very, very different. Listen to Nadler’s version of the song below.

(via Pitchfork)

Before July is out today on Sacred Bones.