It's pretty sorry what passes for intimacy in recorded music these days. Anything with an acoustic guitar, too-closely-miked vocals, and lyrics about relationships can garner acclaim as "deeply personal," "moving," and "profound"-- even when it's about as intimate and deep as a fucking Hallmark card. Sorry, but a trite, unimaginative confession has nothing to do with intimacy. The most intimate depths of the human mind-- even the mind of an obnoxious midwestern singer/songwriter-- are inhabited by things far more interesting than three chords and a little reverb. The human mind is a place of imagination-- grandiose dreams, nagging fears, perplexing memories, and a batch of other insanely complicated thoughts and emotions. Expressing something so complex through music is not at all easy. Doing it in a way that's consistently interesting-- and without ever edging towards self-indulgent experimentation-- is a serious accomplishment.

Phil Elvrum, the sonic genius behind the Microphones, has made a name for himself making records that are both personal and incredibly inventive. But while Elvrum's music focuses largely on his role in nature, Mirah's second Elvrum-produced album, Advisory Committee, is a more purely introspective affair.

What sets Advisory Committee apart from these kinds of records is that, while it does address age-old album fodder like romance and heartbreak, it does so in a way that's both accessible and interesting. Many of the things said on Advisory Committee have been said before, but Mirah says them with a potent combination of sincerity, wit, and innocence.

The centerpiece of Advisory Committee is "Cold Cold Water," a piece of romantic fantasy that sounds every bit as dramatic and beautiful as the sentiments it expresses. "Cold Cold Water," with its lonely, Morricone-influenced desert twang, its passionate, icy strings and its innovative, varied percussion, is nothing short of a masterpiece, fully deserving the in-depth treatment it received on the EP that bears its name. The spooky, windy echoes, and powerful, resonating xylophone of "Special Death" is another highlight, with a guitar and melody that vaguely evoke late-90s Radiohead. "Make It Hot" sports one of the most compelling arrangements on Advisory Committee, opening with just acoustic guitar and Mirah's lovely, girlish voice singing what could be the album's second-strongest melody, behind the unfuckwithable "Cold Cold Water." The next track, "Mt. St. Helens," would feel right at home on a Microphones record, with plucked acoustic guitars, nature-centered lyrics, and Elvrum's trademark thundering percussion.

Perhaps the only major complaint that can be levied against Advisory Committee is that, when Mirah attempts quasi-operatics, it comes across as borderline ridiculous. Still, this is a vast improvement, considering that 2000's You Think It's Like This But Really It's Like This was brutally cloying throughout. Advisory Committee rarely falls into that trap. Here, Mirah is rarely interested in sounding precious, and instead adapts a more mature vocal style whose confidence reflects more Björk than Juliana Hatfield.

Of course, "maturity"-- like "intimacy" and "introspection"-- is a word that far too often translates to "suck." In fact, all of these words have been used and abused to the point where they don't mean much of anything anymore. And that's what's so great about Advisory Committee-- when you strip down these adjectives to their purest meaning, they actually do a pretty damned good job of describing the music. Imagine that!

-Matt LeMay, April 9th, 2002