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HOT OFF THE PRESS – (a)spera by Mirah
It’s Wednesday, and that means it’s time for Nick Courtright’s weekly first glance at just-discovered music, whether it be just-released, just-leaked, or some long-lost gem that has remained under the radar. Click here for other recent editions of Hot Off the Press, featuring acts such as Animal Collective, Deerhunter, TV on the Radio, M. Ward, Deerhoof, Juana Molina, Crystal Stilts, White Denim, and Grizzly Bear.
To be released March 10, 2009 on K Records
Report Card: B-
For all the time that’s passed—Mirah’s last record, the warmly received C’Mon Miracle, came out in 2004—it seemed reasonable to hope for the groundbreaking with this new release. And while (a)spera undoubtedly has its endearing moments, it unfortunately feels like a too-logical follow-up to the previous album, as if the last five years have changed nothing for music or for Mirah herself. Like before, she brings the kitchen sink, from horns to choirs to offbeat percussion, to buffer her simple tunes, and these tricks will surely please anyone not familiar with her work; to someone who is, though, the new adornment may feel a little uninspired, almost like Mirah herself looked at what she had and tried to come up with some sort of “unexpected” way to legitimize her spare vocal tracks.
Despite this tough assessment, Mirah surely still has that stunning voice: alternately coy and seductive, delightfully expressive, and always captivating. And it works very, very well here when she’s not cribbing melodies from her earlier albums, and is utilizing the strengths—bombast, playfulness, youthful energy, a variety of influences, and big production—that made her other albums so eminently replayable. If only those strengths weren’t so often forgotten here, only to be replaced with something a little too coffee shop to satisfy.
So while the conflatedly titled (a)spera—a term based off the Latin for hopes and difficulties inseparably intertwined—is branded with a bit of disappointment, it has moments where Mirah’s as good as she’s ever been, even if those moments are far too few. But when the album’s at its best (such as during excellent fifth and sixth tracks “Country of the Future” and “The Forest”), it sits very well in the present day pantheon of well-done “smartish” acts, right next to Jens Lekman, Grizzly Bear, and Andrew Bird, and that’s company few would be sad to have.
Listen to music by Mirah here