Tara Jane O'Neil
Peregrine
[Quarterstick/Touch and Go]
Rating: 6.2
It snowed here in Williamsburg, Virginia for the first time in years today. Flurries were the
forecast, but they soon turned to showers, covering the brick walkways that pass between the
17th century buildings. On this first day of snow-- the first true day of Winter in this
section of the Atlantic coast in ages-- I sit with the thermostat cranked 85 degrees high,
listening to the new album from Tara Jane O'Neil.
I'm sure some of you recognize this name, and even more recognize such band names as Rodan,
Retsin, and the Sonora Pine, bands O'Neil has worked with in the past. With flakes easing past
my window, I feel an affinity for O'Neil and her first true solo album, Peregrine. But
not for reasons you may think.
According to the liner notes, this entire album-- instrumentation and songwriting-- was recorded
by Tara in her New York City apartment. A brief outline of the many tools she uses includes
piano, balla laika, banjo, and thumb piano. This complex arrangement should be an immediate
red alert to the ambitiousness of the album. While the songs are restrained to the point of
being timid, a close listen to the album's empty space shows just how aggressive and engaging
her songwriting can be.
O'Neil's voice is strong, propelling lyrics about butterflies, the moon, and childbirth over
the reverb and ring of electric and acoustic guitars. Sparingly used double-tracked vocals
help emphasize themes of lost hope and despair. I realize this may sound obnoxious to some,
but after two or three listens I began to look forward to lines that made me cringe the first
time through.
Although the volume of the album remains constant, O'Neil moves in many different directions
stylistically. "A City in the North" is reminiscent of the Cowboy Junkies' Trinity Sessions,
a relaxed piece of melancholy lament. Its companion piece, "A City in the South," however, has
the tone of a Carter Family waltz on a hungover Sunday morning. "Asters" alternates between the
manic train rhythms of Captain Beefheart and a cowgirl ballad cooed around a campfire.
But considering the circumstances around the album, the range of styles feels out of place. The
problem is not the monstrous sonic differences between Rodan and O'Neil's post-Rodan work. That's
an issue that most fans of the early 90's Midwest sound have had to deal with (think of King Kong
or the For Carnation). The problems with Peregrine are the contradictions it creates based
upon the arrangements that O'Neil chooses.
First off, let's talk about the rural tone of an album recorded New York City. This music is
for summer nights on the back porch shucking corn somewhere in the Midwest, not while begging
for change in front of a ghetto McDonald's. Another strange aspect of Peregrine is how
aggressive the lyrics are in their claustrophobic and intimate content. The subject matter
of O'Neil's lyrics doesn't usually match the way she sings them, which makes her seem less
connected, and occasionally, less interested.
On the surface, Peregrine is a beautiful album. "Sunday Song" is an absolutely gorgeous
cut whose acoustic guitars chime under a chorus in which O'Neil's voice is particularly strong.
On the other hand, there's an adherence to standards of sorts. Whether it's country rock or the
post-rock wanking of "Flash Thumb Blues," the music serves to keep the meaning on a very basic
level.
The disorientation I felt seeing snow here in eastern Virginia is the same sensation I've had
trying to examine this album. The conventions that I would expect from Tara Jane O'Neil have
been pushed to the margins in favor of extreme simplicity. She's describing gritty, graveled,
yellow snow, but covers it with a lily white blanket. And while the surface still looks
beautiful, the elements underneath prove too cluttered to make a snow angel.
-Yancey Strickler