Graham Reid | | 1 min read
As with the equally wonderful Blue Nile, this UK band (of Marcus Cliffe and Trevor Jones plus guests) take a leisurely approach to albums and only release something when it is refined and ready.
Miracle Mile too work the treacherous -- and often casually dismissed -- area of "adult pop", that is music based around memorable and sometimes delicate melodies, and lyrics that don't talk down to you.
MM's lyrics are often about various conceptions of "home", finding a place in this world through love and redemption, or allusive and slightly mysterious.
There is a subtle alt.country aspect to what they do (lovely steel guitars) and delivered by Jones' remarkably smooth voice, Miracle Mile's albums have consistently won critical praise if not sales -- so you'd like to think this compilation of 18 songs drawn from all their albums might bring them to greater attention.
Certainly there is a sweetness over the long haul that some might find a touch too rich, but taken together you cannot help but be impressed by people who can write a song inspired by Russian astronaut Yuri Gagarin, reference John Wayne and the Guggenheim Museum, have a song (rightly) picked as one of the best of 2007 by the Sunday Times in Britain -- and still remain below the radar?
I've brought them to attention previously but this compilation available through amazon or their website gives me another opportunity.
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