Search - Mirah :: Cold Cold Water

THIS IS A K RECORDS RECORDING???

Aaron C. Burkhalter | Seattle, WA United States | 10/02/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This song (plus bonuses) was a real surprise for me. This has got to be the best pop song I've heard all year to say the least. I expected this album to be another pretty voice, with pretty lyrics, and pretty strumming. Pretty, but nothing new.
This however is an unexpectedly fantastic song with studio production on par with, and very similar in style to Phil Spector, Brian Wilson's "Pet Sounds" and The Flaming Lips' "Soft Bulletin."
All of this to me was unexpected from K Records, known for the we-started-a-band-this-morning-signed-a-record-deal-with-K-this-afternoon method of rock-n-roll patented by Calvin Johnson. However this recording is clearly a premeditated act of musical murder, a murder to which I fall victim, left limp and beaten after hearing this song for the first time. This was plotted, planned, carried out, and Mirah got away with the perfect crime.
Mirah's voice is beautiful, and her songwriting style on this piece really throws the verse-chorus-verse traditions out the window with several different themes throughout the song. The production is not in your face, but scattered all over the map from very sparse guitar and voice, the dense strings, heavy percussion. The percussion on it's own is heart stopping and perfect in every way, forcing it's way in at just the right moments. Overall though, even at the most dense moments the clarity of this recording is wonderful.
The rest of the album is a handful of acoustic versions of songs from her second full length album "Advisory Committee" and ends in a number of orchestral samplings as sort of a spoof soundtrack to a fake movie titled "Cold Cold Water."
This is a great little intro to Mirah, and the song "Cold Cold Water" is utterly fantastic. Buy the album, or the EP, or download it, borrow it from a friend, whatever! Just listen to it! It's really great and thus far my favorite song to come out this year."