Miracle – The Strife of Love in a Dream: Album Review

Here I go again

Readers will no doubt remember how around this time last year I reviewed The Flaming Lips' “Oczy Mlody” in a vain attempt at broadening my musical horizons, but was ultimately let down by the dry sound and tasteless song writing. So here I am again trying to make myself seem more cultured and interesting than I actually am by reviewing a synth-pop album from Relapse Records of all people. The same record label that released Dying Fetus's new record, as well as that odd saxophone infused death/doom album (Brain Tentacles) from a while back, so I guess I can't accuse them of being predictable. What made me actually want to go out of my way and listen to “The Strife of Love in a Dream”, however, was its strong promotional singles: “Sulfur”, “The Parsifal Gate”, and “Light Mind”, along with going back to listen to the band's previous record “Mercury”. Simply put, I was impressed enough to give the full LP a listen.

At first glance Miracle is your typical synth pop band. You got your synthesizers (kind of important), some nice beats, and lots of effects to add in that oh so important dreamy element to the sound. Forgive me for sounding kind of basic, but there really isn't much more to the bands sound in terms of instrumentation. There's lots of beats and tones that keep the songs from being too dry and spacey, and the band's vocalist is simultaneously haunting and charming. What really tipped the scales for me, however, was the dark and bleak atmosphere the band is going for.

Relapse refers to Miracle as “dark synth-pop” which is a fancy way of saying “synth pop, but depressing”. Yes, what truly made Miracle work for me was the execution of their atmospheric synth pop. Not only are their rhythms and beats very solid, but the effects and tones used, plus the themes explored on the record create a very haunting and downright moving album. On “The Parsifal Gate” for example, the song's finale features this heavy bass tone along with some neat drum fills that build up the tension until climax. The dreary, slow melody of “Sulfur” along with that song's chanting backing vocals create a very similar effect. It all goes towards creating an album with a bleak and depressing tone that is not only engaging, but damn near unbreakable. It kind of reminds me of the more theatrical side of Ghost, but since Ghost hasn't really been playing that angle in a long while, I've certainly missed it.

All that being said, it would be really nice if I knew what the hell the band was actually talking about. While it isn't impossible to decipher what the vocalist is literally singing, actually figuring out what it all means is a task onto its own. It's not a deal breaker or anything, but I can't help but feel like the album is so much deeper than what I'm actually seeing, and lyrics that were a bit more decipherable might have helped that. On the other hand, leaving things just up to interpretation might make the album more appealing to some, and it does keep things from being to heavy handed. And while I maintain that the majority of the album avoids the usual dream pop traps of style over substance, some tracks probably could have used more dense instrumentation (see: “Night Sides”, “Angelix”).

Tight, focused, atmospheric, and inspiring, Miracle's “The Strife of Love in a Dream” is a fantastic synth pop record that builds on the bands previous work in a meaningful and mature way.

9/10