Holly Miranda The Magician's Private Library (XL)
4/5
By: Stephen Maughan
Lead singer of Brooklyn based The Jealous Girlfriends (It is OK if you haven't heard of them), Holly Miranda, releases her debut, a dreamy and mysterious record entitled The Magician's Private Library. In the background, there’s a man cheering on called Kayne West (who has, apparently, been singing her praises for years), and Dave Sitek from TV on the Radio (on board as producer).
Still, anyone expecting either a commercial hip hop masterpiece, or the same kind of magic Sitek performed on Scarlett Johansson's Tom Waits covers album, will be disappointed. The Magician's Prviate Library is an interesting affair, but deliberately cold and melodramatic. Thrown in are some beautiful moments wrapped up with the central story of a young lady dressed trying to find her identity.
That said, I’ve a great deal of sympathy and respect Miranda as a musician and songwriter. Indeed, songs such as the musical toybox 'Waves' display a rare kind of emotional intelligence and depth that make you warm instantly to the fragile Miranda as she sings “ the intent is so much more than just a means to end all of this suffering, this needless pain that strains your face, it doesn't need to be...”
To understand this album fully, one must understand a little of Miranda. Raised in a devout Christian family, she attended church five times a week in Tennessee, but during a 'mission trip' to Russia when she was just 14, it all fell apart. She was there to support children from the Chernobyl nuclear accident she found herself disillusioned and shocked by the effects of the radiation on the children living there. She couldn't to talk to these children about how Jesus could “save” them. Around this time she realized she was gay, and like so many others before her, headed for New York (telling her parents she was “never” coming back). In Brooklyn, The Jealous Girlfriends were formed, and comparisons to Miranda's haunting voice were quickly made to the likes of Cat Power, Mazzy Star, and Leonard Cohen. The Jealous Girlfriends, although respected by New York critics, struggled to break though with their 2007 debut, and are currently on a 'break'.
The 'happy ending' of all this is The Magician's Private Library. A rather subtle, and honest album, where Miranda freely tackles all her childhood issues, as well as her health (she sufers from fibromyalgia, an issues she explores on the tear-jerker ‘Joints’) and emotional well-being (“All my life has been on the edge of falling down” she claims on 'Everytime I go to Sleep')
The Magician's Private Library takes the listener on a gentle path through the mindset of the intriguing Miss Miranda, who in her quiet but determined way, has succeeded in releasing a fascinating album of both musical and personal exploration, with orchestras, changing vocal techniques, drum machines, and a kind of spiritual awareness to her own destiny. For an album that, given the lyrics and Miranda's struggles, could be a depressing affair, she has a lightness of touch and an old movie star grace that make this something rather special.
Artists in this article: Holly Miranda
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