Tara Jane O’Neill – In the Sun Lines

Anyway, I love the TJO. Her first album is easily the best. But I do like a lot of In the Sun Lines. (I'm pretending the third one didn't happen.)

What I really like about her music is that it doesn't always go in a straight line; it's structurally unexpected -- and yet it also has this homemade intimacy to it. And actually, maybe the unconventional song forms even contribute to that sense of intimacy: she wants to go off into this out-of-nowhere bridge, so she does. It's an intuitive approach to songwriting. And it's all so achingly beautiful.

I met her once. I couldn't tell if she was nice -- she seemed drunk and nervous.

Anyway, I love the TJO. Her first album is easily the best. But I do like a lot of In the Sun Lines. (I'm pretending the third one didn't happen.)

What I really like about her music is that it doesn't always go in a straight line; it's structurally unexpected -- and yet it also has this homemade intimacy to it. Actually, maybe the unconventional song forms even contribute to that sense of intimacy: she wants to go off into this out-of-nowhere bridge, so she does. It's an intuitive approach to songwriting. And it's all so achingly beautiful.

I met her once. I couldn't tell if she was nice -- she seemed drunk and nervous.

I posted my previous TJO comments here:

"their level of popularity enhances/detracts from their greatness..."

(Sorry, don't know how to turn that into a link that doesn't display the URL.)

Really, really beautiful. Her cover of Springsteen's "I'm On Fire" is the greatest song ever. That weird, familiar cooing at the end. The circular guitar motif. The tongue click, steady drum. Really, really beautiful.

WTF?? Where is this??

(Also, I agree with your listening-to-her-alone point.)

This little EP which has four songs on: 'If Your Youth is Green', 'Ahn Fair' (the renamed version of the cover), 'High Wire' acoustic, and 'All Jewels Redux'.

It really is special.

Her or Daniel Bedingfield.

Pop star crushes - C or D? Alright, alright, so TJO is hardly a pop star but she's gorgeous, and really sweet. Google yourself in a fit of weary vanity Tara!

Are you M or F, Cozen? Because TJO is a lesbian. But maybe you knew that.

Star crushes = totally classic and not just because I always have them in spades, and embarrassingly so. (I also like that TJO is gay because there are not enough rockstars in my category; it's somewhat comforting.)

new record is real nice. kind of washed over me at first but it's very nuanced and balanced on further listens. it's a weird mix of older things, instrumental/guitar tracks and new song-type-songs, but it fits together tidily.

spinning off from the rodan thread:
kickstarting her next record, http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tarajaneoneil/a-new-offering-by-tara-jane-oneil

her recent 7" is v pretty, also. i am a real sucker for her escalating vocal harmonies.

there is a new song. I'll link it in a sec, & her record is out in January on kranky! &! the song cuts off abruptly enough that maybe the record smearily blurs into itself, like tracer does. swoon.

https://soundcloud.com/kranky/tara-jane-oneil-wordless-in

i am so excited for this

i haven't really spent a lot of time with this yet but she makes such mature records, i think; they're always so sensitively recorded, sound immaculate, digress away from her songs very directionally. i listen to her & remember that i like a bunch of people she's probably played on bills with, i like grouper + jana hunter + charalambides, that in some ways she probably fits an aesthetic profile of Stuff I Like, vocals not upfront, guitars strung out like somehow the wind was involved. but i think she's so singular; the attention to percussion is like fully half of what's going on, the noise pieces have this classical edge, there's a real mood to her guitar that's almost more like an eastern gabor szabo thing than it is a haunting-spooky-reverb vibe. i am not super bitter to be the only one bumping this thread liveblogging her in-between-record silences, but they're such great, timely, sleeper records, i think, the last - & maybe this!, idk yet - as just ... good + nice to have on hand as most anything

man i hate to use the term underrated cuz overrated/underrated is usually such a boring conversation but man tara jane o'neill is so ridiculously underrated

I also think her cover of Springsteen's "I'm On Fire" is the greatest song ever

^^funny how in 2003 i was like "i need to hear this!" and had no way of doing so.

man i hate to use the term underrated cuz overrated/underrated is usually such a boring conversation but man tara jane o'neill is so ridiculously underrated

― balls, Saturday, February 8, 2014 11:51 PM (10 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^^

in one of my few-times-a-year T J O Moments; all of these songs are such gifts, she's really as good as anybody

Her album from this year was terrific.

Waaaaait, I didn't even know she had a new album! That's amazing news.

Yes, massively underrated. Aside from Rodan (which I still can't really get into), I love everything she's touched. Definitely one of my most frequently listened to artists.

"Where Shine New Lights" - came out back in March or April.

Yeah, it's really wonderful in an understated way.

The openness of her song structures on it and her sensitivity to silence and negative space remind me a little of the last Grouper album (as per schlump's comparison upthread), but of course she's been exploring this sound for considerably longer.

I saw her perform earlier this year. She played four or five songs relatively straight, by herself. Then she invited a guy up who played keyboards and they basically just droned for 30 minutes and it was phenomenal.

yeah i saw the same kinda show, once, w/pajo on drums; she'd throw old film canisters turned into rattles out into the crowd, so there was this real chain-clanging panoramic percussion thing on top of everything

& i don't think there's really a stylistic overlap sufficient enough to make her senior to grouper's junior. they used to share a studio in oregon i think.

listenin to tara jane o'neil

#

And she apparently has a new solo album out! She seems to fly so completely under the radar. Which is a shame, because she might be among like my top five currently performing musicians.

New album is nice though I need to spend some more time with it.

Earlier this month I went back and listened to all of her solo albums. I realize why I stopped paying attention to her early on - her first couple records just sort of sound like a softer, unplugged version of that mathy/noodly Louisville sound she helped usher in with her previous bands. But around her third or fourth album she moved into something a lot more interesting and relaxed.

New album, “Yoake” - on first listen but so far very good ambient guitar stuff.

New album, “Yoake” - on first listen but so far very good ambient guitar stuff.

― sctttnnnt (pgwp), Sunday, February 10, 2019 bookmarkflaglink

I really liked this when it came out and listened to it a lot for a couple of weeks, then forgot about it. Returning to it today and it's still really beautiful.

didn't even know. glad you bumped this!

the sonora pine ii reissue sounds really nice, digitally at least, great record.

her new one - the cool cloud of okayness - is gorgeous. walt mcclements, sheridan riley, meg duffy and marisa anderson all guest on it

this new one is the first thing i've heard from her but it seems very special and spectral

I'm a few new ones behind, but everything I've heard of hers (which is a lot) is sublime.

I have not kept up with her at all! But I do really like her first few albums, as I posted at the top of this thread 21 years ago (!!!)

My favorites by her are Where Shine New Lights (2013) and the self-titled album from 2017. Her soundtrack from something called Yoake is also very nice but more squarely ambient/textures. New one is very good too.

haha this is one of those threads where it gets bumped every few years by someone, and then I chime in to offer the same opinion over and over.

This is really nice, damn.

I see it's the drummer from Alvvays, who I don't really care about but ended up seeing earlier this year, and she was great.