Recorded by hand in a ballroom in Louisville, the new album by Tara Jane O'Neil, longtime songwriter, guitarist, and singer, (The Sonora Pine, Retsin, Rodan) and an arranger and engineer of explosively growing gifts, surpasses the promise of her debut solo record of last year. In The Sun Lines is a mansion of songs and soundscapes -- each one it's own room, with it's own story, four walls and a door. There are churning machine rooms and meditative parlours, sweaty bedrooms and haunted attics, dirty kitchens and back decks with a view. O'Neil's ability to paint with sound, using her voice, her mixing board, or any of the instruments at her disposal, is realized here at new heights of power. It is not a folk record. It is not "rock." It is a peek at where music is going, as musicians take the reigns and record without the limitations of strict studio time or dependence on what everyone else is doing and cut new paths where others will follow.
The songs on In The Sun Lines were written on the road, the NYC apartment, the cabin in the woods in upstate NY, and the beige condo in KY - all places she has called home in the last year. There are representations of minimalism and density, narrative epics and sound pieces clocking in at under two minutes. Confrontations with sickness and health in the past year have brought a new richness and clarity to her voice. A variety of melodic emanations from not just guitars come in and out of the listener's ears, sparking and keeping mental-emotional excitement. These songs can be enjoyed on a spiritual level, and/or late at night with your shirt or your skirt off.
O'Neil's intentionally ill-informed musical guests came through the studio made of space and hard wood to provide some elements of chance and color. Longtime live sideman Noel Hawley shows up providing cello and Rhodes piano on the first two songs. Louisville native Rick Rizzo (King Kong, Java Men, 11th Dream Day) plays drums on the tumbling "High Wire." Rachel Grimes (Rachel's) plays piano on "This Morning" as well as the echoes-of-Bacharach song "Sweet Bargaining." Dan Littleton (Ida) came from NYC to sing a song about NYC ("Your Rats Are"). Samara Lubelski (Hall of Fame) improvises violin on several songs including "A Noise in the Head," which is based on a dream that turned out to be just the sounds of the city in the morning. Ida Pearle (Ida,Flashpapr) was caught on tape one morning shredding the violin.
At their saddest, the songs roll in timeless armageddons reminiscent of Joni Mitchell or Brian Eno; when they sashay, they hint at Brazilian Tropicalia or maybe Dusty Springfield -- but from start to finish they shine with O'Neil's unmistakable artistry, and no one else's.