Mirah’s latest album, “C’mon Miracle,” is her most satisfying work to date. This record is not a statement of quality, but rather consistency. Her music has been beautiful from the start, but on this release, her sound has been refined to the point where it can rightfully be called divine.
For the uninitiated, this release is the musician’s third album, following 2000’s “You Think It’s Like This But Really It’s Like This” and 2002’s “Advisory Committee.” Listeners might be tempted to call her a singer-songwriter, but her albums represent more than typical folky pop songs, in large part due to Mirah’s strong musical relationship with collaborator Phil Elvrum.
Yet whereas Mirah and Elvrum’s techniques brought together numerous, often disparate styles on her first two releases, the 11 tracks of “C’mon Miracle” are more cohesive, and don’t sacrifice any of the musical diversity and unique production values.
The first track, “Nobody Has to Stay,” serves up a melancholic string section to the haunting delivery of the lyrics, “Rest up in the gentle sway / Sister make a flower place / The mother father brother greys / Of river stones to keep her safe.” The result is lithe and dreamy.
The instrumentation gives the album its atmosphere, as with the autoharp on “We’re Both So Sorry.” The indie rock sound from previous albums is still intact, especially in “Jerusalem” and “The Light.”
Still, Mirah’s guitar shines through when it must; the power of her playing lies not in technical prowess, but in the connection to her lyrics. The music is unquestionably inseparable from the lyrics. In “Don’t Die In Me,” the singer tackles both personal and physical geographies, waxing, “The mighty continents divide / for a second time in all history / they found themselves just floating free / from all responsibility / without the weight of being whole / some fruits evolved all on their own.” The lyrics alternate and fall into groovy, minimal percussive solos.
“The Dogs of B.A.” is a sunnier tune, almost samba-like, decked out with accordion and repetitive, alternating guitar lines, while remaining minimal. Lyrics are appropriately breezy: “The dogs of Buenos Aries / they will take you from your sleep / between the firecrackers cackling and the taxies in the street / and if you wake up lonely better throw some shoes on those feet / to keep the heartbreak from taking your life.”
Let it be known there are few contemporary performers as special as this one. Her words are intimate, beautiful and honest. These are undeniably qualities.
Mirah plays WOW Hall on Wednesday, May 12, with Liarbird (Themba Lewis of the group contributed to “C’mon Miracle”) and Tara Jane Oneill. Tickets are $8; doors open at 8 p.m.; showtime is 8:30. WOW Hall is located at 291 W. 8th Ave.