Aural Pleasure, The Seventh Day of Xmas

On the seventh day of Xmas my AP gave to me ... seven sirens singing. Well no, it's actually two sirens singing, but we did "Two" earlier. Maybe today's collection should have been two and two should have been three, but then where would three go? Seven? You see the problem? Anyway, I'm so happy today that I get to talk about this dynamic duo.

Thao & Mirah - Thao & Mirah

Have you been paying attention? If you have then you know that I love Mirah. If you haven't, well, I like to describe Mirah as ... okay imagine if Norah Jones never played it safe, went crazy in the studio with her songs and was inspired by spaghetti western soundtracks, okay with that image you're close to what Mirah is musically. She's one of my favorite musicians ever and by all rights she should be far more popular than she is, she really is an indie treasure. Seriously, if you like stuff like Norah Jones but want something less tame, more experimental and way more sonically interesting I suggest picking up a Mirah album, I can whole heartily recommend any of them.

Anyway, this isn't just about Mirah, see she surprised me this year when she teamed up with Thao Nguyen to release this duet. I wish I could write a whole paragraph about how much I love Thao, but I don't actually know anything about her, which is a complete shame I know. I do plan to remedy that as soon as possible. What I do know is that I was pretty skeptical about this team up, Mirah is such a wonderful musician and I was afraid her shy musical presence might be drowned out or diluted in a duet. But since this album is listed as one of my favorites of the year you can probably guess that my worries were completely unfounded. If anything Mirah shines in this duet with Thao, and the two of them compliment each other fantastically. In fact, I like them so much as a duet that I hope they continue to work as a team from here on out.

I'm starting to realize that anything that causes Mirah to tread new ground is a boon for her, she has redefined herself and experimented in so many ways that a duet is such a natural progression that I can't believe I was even worried. What's interesting is that some of the songs are Mirah doing what she does best, take for example "Little Cup" and "Spaced Out Orbit," but even these hint at an outside influence. I'm sure there are a few songs that are Thao doing what she does best, again I can't actually comment on that, but my love of this album has inspired me to remedy that as soon as possible. But then there's the songs with the both of them going crazy, really showing how great they are together, like the chaotic "Eleven" or the point counter point style of "How Dare You." In short this is a fantastic album by two competent indie musicians and marks a fine introduction to both Thao and Mirah for the uninitiated. These girls deserve your attention, I recommend you give it to them. One last song, the beautiful "Hallelujah."