Whilst the big press flies may all have been hovering around Marina And The Diamonds' release this week, there's more than one multi-talented songstress's album on which to spend your Saturday sweet money. Holly Miranda - part Beth Orton, part Florence, part something else wonderfully less savoury - is a Detroit born musician who is virtually her own band, multi tasking as she can at piano, guitar and trumpet. Her album released this week - 'The Magician's Private Library' - is a magical, subtly-flavoured stroll through folky, guitary, electric indie fields, sounding at times not unlike a female fronted TV On The Radio. Which isn’t entirely surprising seeing as TVOTR’s Dave Sitek produced this soothing slice of darkly layered fairytale.
The tracks are a mix of light and summery – ‘Sweet Dream’ and ‘Every Time I Go To Sleep’ – and thrillingly, hot-breath-against-your-ears-sinister - see ‘No One Just Is’. ‘High Tide’ is a bit of an oddity with its Yamaha wedding disco DJ intro but it feels like it still fits perfectly with an album that’s already woven out of so many different threads. ‘Slow Burn Treason’ takes things on another turn – heartbreaking this time – and the last minute and a half of the track is so overwhelmed by violins and emotion that I wouldn’t recommend listening to it if you’ve been at the gin.
Despite the lazy, easy vibe, ‘Waves’ might also have you weeping into your glass, even if Miranda’s vocal does sound a little like Sheryl Crowe in raw moment. ‘Forest Green Oh Forest Green’ is a lovely light opening, part nursery rhyme, part Motown-driven pop with a short but sweet ‘Space Oddity’ moment lending extra credibility (see if you can spot it too). Finally, ‘Joints’ is like MGMT with brass, vaguely following the chords from 'Handbags and Gladrags' in its slow and slouchy style and lifted to an unforeseen level of greatness by a triumphant trumpet. Whilst this album may not have the profile of Marina’s release it easily has the production skill, vocal depth and weight behind it to take you on an equally thrilling, if slightly different journey. And it’s got trumpets too.
www.myspace.com/hollymiranda
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