“Lake/Ocean” is taken from Mirah‘s sixth solo album “Understanding” out on her own imprint Absolute Magnitude Recordings.
Sustained by a playful chord progression played on hand-muted guitar, Mirah’s new single “Lake/Ocean” finds her more light-hearted than ever. It is one of those songs where the melody is so good that you don’t mind hearing it over and over again – in fact, it’s all you want to hear. Mirah knows her strengths, and she carefully places the melody line in the spotlight, building the rest of the song around it. It’s hard not to find yourself singing along to it after thirty seconds.
Long gone are the days when Mirah’s music was firmly line with the K-Records roster of the late 90s. Though “Lake/Ocean” still retains the lo-fi charm that made her a household name, it sounds like something that a 20-year-old up-and-coming Bandcamp artist could have put out. Minimalistic in its instrumentation except for a drum-lead breakdown that never grows into a climax, “Lake/Ocean” finds part of its charm in its use of a new wave synthesiser that plays along the song’s vocal melody. Lyrically, though, “Lake/Ocean” is decidedly Mirah-esque. It relies on impressionistic images of nature not far off of Phil Elverum’s work with Mirah in The Microphones: “The lake was big as an ocean / An ocean of my fears / The mountains rise clouds in my eyes / And I brought myself out here.” One of the best tracks in her new, electronic-infused album “Understanding”, “Lake/Ocean” is a wonderful example of a veteran artist trying her hand at new things without alienating her audience.
