Have you ever noticed how some albums sound like they belong in a certain season? Slower, darker albums usually belong in the winter, whereas happy, poppier albums belong to the warmer seasons.
STRFKR’s “Miracle Mile” belongs in the springtime. It sounds fresh and new, like spring, and you can somehow almost hear the warmth through the electronic songs.
Released February 12, “Miracle Mile” may have arrived a tad earlier than its allocated “season,” but it was not unwelcome. The springy thoughts and synth-heavy album evokes a welcome motivator to make it through the dreaded “Farch.”
With electronic music like STRFKR’s, sometimes the songs on an album can all sound the same, and blend together into one long piece of futuristic background music. With “Miracle Mile,” STRFKR avoids this, and creates an album with a wide variety of songs with distinct differences ranging from relaxing songs to dance beats.
“Kahlil Gibran” was one of the slower songs on the album, but the ethereal autoharp combined with the hypnotically rhythmic pace of song made it one of my favorites. The vocals flowed through the song like they were just another instrument, giving it a unique sound.
A folksier turn from the rest of the songs on “Miracle Mile,” “Fortune’s Fool” sounded a little more like Beck and a little less like the electronica sound on the rest of the album. Even though the tune was repetitive and even a bit droning, it still was a good tune, and got stuck in my head easily.
The fifty-four seconds of “Isea” were short, but sweet; everything about it sounded like a tribute to summer, even though its two lines of lyrics may have shown a different perspective on the season.
One of the faster and more electronic songs, “Leave It All Behind” was a fun flashback to the sound of STRFKR’s earlier albums. This energetic, scintillating dance song is one of only a few on “Miracle Mile.”
At the end of the album, the seven minute long, almost wordless “Nite Rite” had a slightly energetic jam in the middle flanked by stretches of more relaxing nighttime-sounding tunes complete with almost cricket-like sound effects.
“Miracle Mile” was a short step away from STRFKR’s previously more electronic sound, but the end result was still fun, interesting, and unique; with an overall bright and sunny sound.
