Bowlegs has been listening to the Thao & Mirah record on a regular basis of late, which in turn got us digging out our old Mirah records. And though we like every one of them, ‘C’mon Miracle’ still stands as a classic turn from the San Francisco-based musician.

It was Phil Elvrum who took to the controls for the 2005 release. It proved a genius move – brimming with upfront guitars and inventive arrangements, on songs that stay with you for a long time after they have played out.

From delving into Politics with the stirring ‘Jerusalem’ to the rolling melancholy within ‘Don’t Die on Me’ – each moment here takes a new approach with varying tempos and lively instrumentation. Mirah (full name: Mirah Yom Tov Zeitlyn) sounds positively angelic on the slow-strummed ‘You’ve Gone Away Enough’ – electric guitars and organs lifting the emotion at the mid-point. And the bare-boned ‘Nobody Has To Stay’ has a lowly string section that pulls on the soul. ‘Look Up!’ lets the album fly off the hook, with some rough-edged distortion and messy speed changes – its stands as a suitably noisy halfway mark for the record.

‘C’mon Miracle’ is as challenging as it is rewarding, as heartfelt as it it lively and as vital as anything else released in 2005 – or any other year come to that.