TARA JANE O’NEIL
A Ways Away
On her fifth album (and her first for K Records), the wonderful Tara Jane O’Neil gives further proof that she’s no ordinary singer-songwriter. Consciously soaked in reverb (the album fittingly closes with a song called “The Drowning Electric”), the tracks that make up A Ways Away are melancholic and spacious, meticulously arranged and completely absorbing. O’Neil has once again hit upon a beautiful balance of style and substance. A Ways Away’s 36 minutes of introspective haze, accented by delicate guitarwork and a slew of guests (including notables like Mirah, Osa Atoe and Ida), seems too short. With an album this good, it’s hard to pick out standout tracks. “Drowning” is a haunting song of loss, propelled forward with sparse rhythm and a sweeping electric bridge that falls like a curtain across the chorus. The aching “Howl” might have been the album’s centerpiece, had it not first appeared on 2004’s You Sound, Reflect; regardless, O’Neil gives it new life here, adding rhythm, strings, and stirring vocals. “Dig In,” the lead-off track, skates over the clatter of sleigh-bells, with O’Neil’s guitarlines escaping and returning to the song’s root chord again and again (later, “Pearl Into Sand” circles back and picks up the same theme). Her songs may be simple and familiar, but the reassuring A Ways Away sounds about as good as coming in from the cold. (K Records, www.krecs.com) Jonathan Dyck
Winnipeg music & culture since 1989