“Blue Light Room”
from the album In Circles
2006
iTunes
MP3 – “Blue Light Room” [right-click/save-as]
According to Greek legend, when Pandora opened her box and unleashed a variety of evils upon the world — hate, greed, envy, pride, scensterism — the last thing to fly out and be set free was hope. Some will tell you hope was the gods’ gift to the world, a small salve for all the bitterness and baddies they set loose.
But the Greeks were clever fellows and really knew a thing or two about irony. Hope wasn’t the tradeoff for unleashing a box full of evils on the world, but the worst one of all. Hope keeps us holding on, hanging on for the light at the end of the tunnel. It lets us skirt better judgment and logic in hope of a change of luck. It’s tormented Chicago Cubs fans for 98 years now. For all the chin-up, put-on-a-happy face platitudes associated with it, hope’s the bitterest pill the human condition’s ever had to swallow.
Hope plays a funny role in Tara Jane O’Neil’s latest solo effort. The erstwhile Retsin/Rodan mainstay returns for her seventh solo effort, culling an idiosyncratic mix of folk, roots and art-minded indie rock that’s as sparse and haunting as anything you’ll run into this side of a dirge. Spacious arrangements let O’Neil craft deceptively clever guitar work that’s far more complicated than the singer/songwriter strumming that it may first appear. O’Neil’s vocal tracks, which she unwinds with a slow, almost reluctant voice, only further reinforce the mood: In Circles will make you want to crawl back into bed with a steaming, creamy coffee like it’s the dullest day in February — even if it’s in the middle of spring. O’Neil’s songs meander, wander and twist our ears, but they always end up ringing out with the sort of loneliness akin to staying home, alone, for the holidays — you’ll feel fragile and blue, but also somehow also peaceful and content with it.
It’s that contentedness that makes In Circles so beguiling. O’Neil wraps up ten tracks that touch on all flavors of lonely. “A Partridge Song” and “A Sparrow Song” build off O’Neil’s willowy vocals for the lonely feel of a wide-open prairie. “The Louder” and “Need No Pony” are relatively straightforward indie-folk numbers that yank heartstrings the old-fashioned way, and “A Room for These” revels in atmospheric rumbles that hint at everything from sad-core noises to droning heartbreak. And while O’Neil wraps everything up in enough minor-key melodies, sparse production and heart-wrenching simplicity, there’s a sense of comfort and hope to her songs. It’s not enough to make In Circles a peppy listen, but it’s easy to take solace in O’Neil’s tunes.
Maybe it is just hope’s false leads making us think the dawn is about to break or the clouds will soon blow over. Maybe we’re just being silly and it won’t get better. But, if the echoing loneliness of In Circles is the other option, who are we to complain?