Holly Miranda :: The Magician's Private Library

This is a point I've made many times over the years in real-life conversation, but never in internet form: Pitchfork is absolutely dead-on, unarguably correct about the music it reviews well; its best new music section is--and I'm only slightly exaggerating here--about all one would need to keep decently updated on the latest and greatest in the world of artsy fartsy music. Pitchfork's impeccable ability to divine the proverbial rice from the chaff, however, carries with it a downside--sometimes a few good grains sneak by its myopic gaze undetected, and truly great music ends up, forgotten, in 6-or-so-out of-10 territory, instead of the canonical, BNM-worthy 8.5-and-up range. Though regrettable, this phenomenon is understandable: any overly picky (and sadly single) member of the dating pool would understand.

Midlake's 2006 "The Trials of Van Occupanther" (6.8/10), The Avett Brothers' 2009 "I and You and Love" (5.8/10), and Mobius Band's 2005 "The Loving Sounds of Static" (5.8/10) are just a few albums which I consider recent near-classics despite their less-than-stellar Pitchfork scores. Holly Miranda's just-released solo debut is yet another, having just received a meager 6.7/10 from Pitchfork this week, despite the presence and contributions of two of the publication's most revered hipster names to drop: TV On The Radio's Dave Sitek, who produces, and Kyp Malone, who adds guest vocals on "Forest Green Oh Forest Green" and "Slow Burn Treason", two of the stronger tracks on the album. Anyway I hate to blather on too much, especially about something best experienced on one's own through a pair of good headphones, so I'll just leave you with my strongest recommendation to check out Holly Miranda's beautiful new album, even if bits of it may soon end up on Grey's Anatomy--as Pitchfork's reviewer speculated was soon possible, and for which he deducted hipster points, I'm sure--you still heard it here first.

Fave tracks: "Joints", "Waves", "Canvas" "Sleep on Fire" and "Sweet Dreams"