Mirah, Mirah

NEWS | TUESDAY, JUNE 16 | BY FUSION STAFF WRITER, RUDOLFO CARRILLO

Mirah Yom Tov Zeitlyn, whose distinctly intense yet pop-infused music shaped and continues to shape the pop and indie music landscape of America, will perform at FUSION on Wednesday, June 24, at 7:00 PM. Here’s my old-school style pitch, designed to get you, dear reader, to come out for what will certainly be a memorable performance by a legendary member of the American music community.

On Mirah’s latest album, Dedication, there’s a song called “The Ballad of the Bride of Frankenstein.” That was notable to me of late because of two important reasons, I wistfully recalled.

First, I could not forget that AllMusic, that godly voice whose divine tone all alt-weekly music reviewers properly revered at the turn of the century, pronounced Mirah’s first full length recording, You Think It's Like This but Really It's Like This (K Records, 2000), a “masterpiece of lo-fi beauty,” while Pitchfork (another sublime adjudicator of all that was cool, rocanrol-wise as we all graduated into the aughts) told readers that the the record was one of the best indie rock albums ever produced in the Northwest.

Her sound back then was sublime, sorta shoegaze, sorta dreamy, infused with darkly delicate minor-chord instrumental undertones and searchingly detached vocals that avoided being twee but still displayed pop perfection. That sound, later popularized in movies like Love & Other Drugs, still resonates and has definitely influenced the sound of the pop music we’re tuning into now.

The second thing that was important about the new song by Mirah, to me anyway, was the fact that I had recently been discussing James Whale’s landmark 1935 blockbuster horror film, Bride of Frankenstein, at grad school. There’s a lot of debate about the meaning of that film, in academic circles, if you wanna know. Besides the director’s masterful use of Expressionism, the film also presents interesting narratives about the marginalization of “the other,” about the depiction of women, about the nature of freedom and the consequences of choice, and the inevitability of fate.

So I listened to the new song and this is what I got. The song starts with a darkly driving sinewy rhythm that beckons listeners into another world, a world where the narrator gravely yet breathlessly, wondrously intones, “I am the bride of Frankenstein/ My hair shocked through in that crazy line/ Eyes wide and mouth crying/ Better to be dead than dying/… Is it the things we chose?/ Was it the plague, the way the whole world froze?/ How do we change?/ How do we become real?/ Reanimation is a rotten deal…” Mirah’s composition seems to echo the constancy of controversy surrounding Frankenstein’s Bride in an elusively personal way that speaks to the tragedy and triumph of the individual and a larger, questioning, burdened humanity as well.

There’s fragility there, but coming through the jangly, ghostlike musical backdrop there is also a kind of strength and resilience that must be noted and is probably universally understood by those hailing from Generation X and beyond.  Relevant and compelling in its listenability, Mirah is still showing off the pop chops that brought her and her music into the cultural stream 26 years ago. 

The new album (recorded in 2025 and including compositions from the years 2021–2025) is filled with intensely flavorful pop nuggets, introspective visions, and a journey, a dedication towards transcendence. That singular sound can be heard throughout, rocking out on tracks such as “Stumbling” and gathering force like an infinite storm on the ethereal “Beginning of Time.” The album closer, “New Jersey Turnpike,” feels heartfelt and universal, as Mirah explores the thin line between grief and joy when she muses on the death of her father and the birth of her child, slowly singing, “Always forever/ Will I be tender?/ Even though love means/ Lasting when life leaves…”

As is well known in these parts of the West, FUSION provides a venue to explore the human experience in a community-focused, inclusive, and supportive setting. What a place to experience the subtle and significant work of one of the treasures of indie music, both past and present!

Rockers, if you haven’t yet climbed aboard the FUSION bandwagon, here is a perfect opportunity to do just that as the sound of Mirah’s voice fills our humble campus with a kind of music that renders the beating of the human heart as the center of our experiences together and apart. 

See you there, que no?

Stream Mirah’s new album, Dedication, here.
Stream Mirah’s groundbreaking first album here.

Mirah Solo Show at FUSION
Wednesday, June 24, 2026
7:00 PM  9:00 PM
FUSION | The Cell
700 1st Street Northwest
Albuquerque, New Mexico, 87102 

Sliding Scale Tickets Here.