The winsome, reflective, string-driven opener Generosity is very reminiscent of fellow chanteuses like Emiliana Torrini, but has enough wit about it to stand on its own feet.
Mirah – Aspera
www.krecs.com www.konkurrent.nl
Ah, I bet you’re thinking, not another weirdo girl singer songwriter… And yes there are a lot of them about at present. Still Mirah’s LP is a good one, from a trouper who’s learnt her trade over the last decade or so. It’s interesting, enchanting and definitely worth a little of your time.
The winsome, reflective, string-driven opener Generosity is very reminiscent of fellow chanteuses like Emiliana Torrini, but has enough wit about it to stand on its own feet. The songs are for the most part dreamy and understated in accompaniment, but have a nagging catchiness to them that means the listener is caught up in the song story… Maybe it’s the way the melody line doesn’t leave you alone as in The World is Falling, and Gone Are the Days, or the fact that Mirah’s diction is very pronounced throughout… You can hear every inflection (listen to Education or Bones and Skin for proof).
Favourite (and defining) track on the LP is the beautiful Shells, which dips and sways and utterly enchants for the whole of it’s two and a bit minutes; (and is that a kora backing Mirah? It sounds like one).
As said earlier, it’s very much in the alternative female singer-songwriter mould, but a really nice LP nonetheless.
Words: Richard Foster