''(a)spera'' is the fourth studio album by American singer-songwriter

Mirah Mirah (born Mirah Yom Tov Zeitlyn) is an American musician and songwriter based in Brooklyn, New York. After getting her start in the music scene of Olympia, Washington in the late 1990s, she released a number of well-received solo albums on K ...

, released on March 10, 2009. Produced by

Phil Elverum Philip Whitman Elverum (; born May 23, 1978) is an American musician, songwriter, record producer and visual artist, best known for his musical projects The Microphones and Mount Eerie. Based in Anacortes, Washington, in the mid-2000s he began ...

, it met with a largely positive reception from music critics. According to ''

PopMatters ''PopMatters'' is an international online magazine of cultural criticism that covers aspects of popular culture. ''PopMatters'' publishes reviews, interviews, and essays on cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, fi ...

'' about the album, "The musical marriage of Mirah and Elvrum is one of those rare perfect meeting of the minds—

Jay-Z Shawn Corey Carter (born December 4, 1969), known professionally as Jay-Z, is an American rapper, record producer, entrepreneur, and founder of Manhattan-based conglomerate talent and entertainment agency Roc Nation. He is regarded as one of ...

and

Kanye Ye ( ; born Kanye Omari West ; June 8, 1977) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, and fashion designer. Born in Atlanta and raised in Chicago, West gained recognition as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records in the ear ...

Butch Vig Bryan David "Butch" Vig (born August 2, 1955) is an American musician, songwriter, and record producer, best known as the drummer and co-producer of the alternative rock band Garbage and the producer of the diamond-selling Nirvana album ''Neve ...

and

Kurt Cobain Kurt Donald Cobain (February 20, 1967 – April 5, 1994) was an American musician who served as the lead vocalist, guitarist and primary songwriter of the rock band Nirvana. Through his angst-fueled songwriting and anti-establishment persona ...

Phil Spector Harvey Phillip Spector (born Harvey Philip Spector; December 26, 1939January 16, 2021) was an American record producer and songwriter, best known for his innovative recording practices and entrepreneurship in the 1960s, followed decades later by ...

and... basically anyone who can sing.

Production and release

''(a)spera'' was the first album after a four-year hiatus by Mirah, after time spent working on collaborations and remixes of previous albums.

produced and engineered the album, as with many of her previous releases. It was released on March 10, 2009, on Olympia label

K Records K Records is an independent record label in Olympia, Washington founded in 1982. Artists on the label included early releases by Beck, Modest Mouse and Built to Spill. The record label has been called "key to the development of independent mu ...

Critical reception

The track received positive reviews, including 4/5 stars from

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

, a positive review in ''Dusted Magazine'', 7.8/10 by

Pitchfork Media ''Pitchfork'' (formerly ''Pitchfork Media'') is an American online music publication (currently owned by Condé Nast) that was launched in 1995 by writer Ryan Schreiber as an independent music blog. Schreiber started Pitchfork while working ...

, 8/10 by

, and 3.5/5 stars from ''

Spin Spin or spinning most often refers to: * Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thread by twisting fibers together, traditionally by hand spinning * Spin, the rotation of an object around a central axis * Spin (propaganda), an intentionally b ...

.'' According to PopMatters, "The musical marriage of Mirah and Elvrum is one of those rare perfect meeting of the minds—

and

and... basically anyone who can sing. One could easily imagine Mirah being just another songwriter, singing turgid ballads about loneliness over an acoustic guitar (and indeed there is the occasional disturbing flash of this in her work), but through the intelligent production of Elvrum, and indeed, some of the other producers on ''(a)spera'', she is able to set her thoughts upon soaring mountains of musical genius."

Track listing

Personnel

;Songwriting, etc. *

- vocals, songwriting, etc. * Christopher Doulgeris – Bass, Guitar, Piano, Vocals, Producer, Organ (Pump), Horn Arrangements, String Arrangements ;Production *

– Producer, Engineer, Guitar, Piano, Cymbals, Organ (Hammond), * Bryce Panic – Producer, Percussion, Bongos, Drums, Vocals, Kalimba, Bells, Claves, Vibraphone, Hi Hat * Tucker Martine – Producer, Engineer, Mixing * Kane Mathis – Producer, Kora * Adam Selzer – Producer, Engineer, Mixing * Barry Corliss – Mastering * Liz Haley – Photography, Cover Collage ;Instrumentals * Jef Brown – Sax (Baritone), Sax (Tenor) * Chris Funk – Dobro, Mandolin, Celeste, Hurdygurdy, Dulcimer (Hammer) * Lori Goldston – Cello * Cory Gray – Trumpet * Radio Sloan – Guitar * Doug Jenkins – Cello * Robert Andrew Jones – Double Bass * Emily Kingan – Caixa * Justin Mackovich – Violin * Lisa Molinaro – Viola * Cynthia Nelson – Flute * Tara Jane O'Neil – Bass, Guitar, Guitar (Bass) * Toussaint Perrault – Trombone, Trumpet, Tuba * Mehmet "Memo" Vurkaç – Caixa, Pandeiro, Repique, Surdo

References

External links

MirahMusic.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aspera Mirah albums 2009 albums K Records albums