The supremely talented musician and visual artist Tara Jane O’Neil
has given us yet another stunning album. Ways Away (her eighth
solo disc and a fitting successor to 2006’s In Circles) is built
mostly on vamping motifs, echoing guitar phrases and faint percussive
elements, with a languid tranquility that hovers over each of its
songs. The result is like capturing the serenity that hovers at the
start of each day. While it is hard not to think of the equally
hypnotic Low, Yo La Tengo and Ida (with whom she has collaborated
before), the sustained fragility of Ways Away leaves no doubt
that O’Neil’s distinct voice grows stronger with each release.
This article appears in Jul 9-15, 2009.