Mirah - 'Share This Place: Stories and Observations'

Some of the best songs, heck, some of the best works of art in general, are about sex. Coincidentally, some of the best of the best have been written by Philadelphia native Mirah Yom Tov Zeitlyn (Mirah for short). Her first album, You Think It’s Like This But Really It’s Like This, was, among other things, a delicious slab of lo-fi folk-y dirty bedroom talk. Mirah promised to take off all of your clothes, provided you, in turn, tied her down to the “Murphy Bed,” and in the end you both could marvel at the twinkle in each other’s eyes and sigh with satisfaction.

But, You Think It’s Like This came out back in 2000. Seven years later, Mirah has shed some of her sexual fervor and bugged out. Literally. Her new album, Share This Place: Stories and Observations, is part of a multimedia children’s story about insects and an arachnid or two. Each of the album’s 12 tracks is meant to be accompanied by a stop motion animation by Britta Johnson. One of the videos, the album ender “Credo Cigalia,” is included with Share This Place, and it certainly helps to put the work in context.

Unfortunately, though, even in context, Share This Place is a bit of a mixed bag. Working with folk musicians Spectratone International, Mirah has crafted more musically intricate works here, but they lack the warmth of her debut or its follow-up, Advisory Committee. It’s odd; Share This Place has more instruments present—cello, accordion, oud, electric oud (which I did not know existed) and various forms of percussion—than earlier efforts, but it sounds emptier, less intimate and more repetitive.

Part of this problem, of course, may be in the subject matter. Relating to a song like “Gestation of the Sacred Beetle” is a bit of a leap. The song is about, well, a young beetle enjoying food provided by its mother, and while listeners may draw inspiration from the maternal love described in the track and think of their own moms, in the end it’s still about a bug chowing down.

Share This Place is not completely banal, though. Some tracks have a remarkable sound, like deeper cuts “My Lord Who Hums” and “Ecdysis.” Those songs are testaments to Mirah’s power as a vocalist. Swirling and sexy (and, okay, still about bugs), “My Lord Who Hums” is one of the album’s most rocking tracks. “Ecdysis” is just as good.

Other tunes, meanwhile, get by on bizarrely ridiculous charm, like “Supper.” Kyle Hanson, who really serves the whole album well, lends his neat-o accordion-playing skills to this ditty about a spider. “Supper” has one of my favorite lines of the album—“Oh how I love a good soup/Straight from the shell is best.” Few people could deliver a line like that well, but luckily Mirah is one of them.

While it’s tempting to cut Share This Place some slack—it is supposed to be a children’s album accompanied by visual aids after all—there is only so much forgiveness to be given. On its own, this release is uneven and dull. But hey, maybe it’ll make for a great lullaby for the kids. Anything to get High School Musical out of their parents' heads…