Lana Mir is so beautiful it is mesmerizing. Straight blonde hair parted in the middle, length to her shoulders, sea blue eyes, tight dress which hugs her waist, heart shape face. Like a young Marianne Faithfull. And, more importantly, Lana has a similar voice to a young Faithfull. Both of them share a light touch on top with a surprisingly robust bottom. It slides down sweet but it sticks to you: Mir should be an ephemeral presense but there is a hidden intenseness which leaves its mark though you’re not sure why.
Last night at Arlene’s Grocery the strength of the writing -all but one an original, in Lana’s eight song (half new, half the EP), half hour set, helped a lot.
There is a Lana Mir EP The Goodbye Girl and an upcoming album and last night Lana, backed by a bass player, a guitarist/keyboard player, taped drums and back up music and a Xylophone she played very well, the songs spoke for themselves. From faves like “Unbreakable” and her cover of “I Wanna Be Adored” to new songs “Tears Are Not Enough” and (her fave) “Return” the songwriting is wonderfully consistent. A sixties, smoothed out pop sound where the oft mentioned Brazilian jazz influences seem distilled completely out and replaced with the pop writing qualities you might associate with Herb Albert, Bacharah -pure pop genius of a different era. With a novelty tune like “Summertime” thrown in for good measure. Incidentally, if Lana released the Stone Roses cover in the UK I bet it could hit big and, in a market that has thrown up so many single girls (Winehouse, Lily Allen, Katy Perry, Marina and the Diamonds, Florence and the Machine) perhaps she should break the UK first.
Mir fits in with the above except she is somewhat distant onstage. She has a nice smile when she chooses to unleash it, and a good rapport with her band, but between the xylophone and the PC, Lana is stuck behind a board motionless except for a sway and a toe tap and she needs to put out a little more. Mir, who moved here from the Ukraine where she used to work as a presenter on a radio station, has a back story and certainly as she introduces herself to her audience many for the first time, might want to tell the world. I would worry less about the back up sound , dump the tapes except for the drums, and the xylophone, let the band carry the instrumentation and allow herself to carry the performance.
Instead, despite her sweetness, she cools across like, her again, Faithfull. Lana is an elusive figure. There is a come hither, “It is sexy…” she explains about the “I Wanna Be Adored” video… “And I’m in It.” but it is etheral and crystalline like her voice. Clear and somehow muddied, and just about note perfect (if she flubbed, I missed it).
So: beautiful girl, beautiful songs, beautiful voice: Just step a little closer kid and you’re there.