XL Recordings

Mythical, mystical-sounding albums always seem to demand larger-than-life tales of their own. So we were hardly surprised to encounter the provocative back-story to Holly Miranda’s spellbinding new record. According to the accompanying promotional literature, Miranda grew up in Tennessee and Michigan, where she attended church five times per week and was not allowed to indulge in “secular music”. She escaped to New York at the age of sixteen in pursuit of singing stardom and was soon offered a record deal, only it was with a label linked to the mafia. Miranda quickly sought refuge with family in Detroit before eventually returning to New York and succeeding (relatively) with the Jealous Girlfriends, a band that happened to rehearse next to the studio space of one Dave Sitek, a veritable deity in the Brooklyn music scene. Five years later, the now 27-year-old Miranda is releasing her solo debut, an album produced by Sitek and reportedly recorded over a three-week span between the ungodly hours of 7 p.m. and 9 a.m.

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