A Ways Away
- Tara Jane O'Neil
- Band Name: Tara Jane O'Neil
- Record Label: K
- Release Date: May 5, 2009
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Like nothing else you’ll hear this year.
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80A Ways Away is a beautifully low-key set that frames her mellifluous voice and folky asongs with guitar drones and a slow-motion, dream-like feel. [Aug 2009, p.98]
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A Ways Away casts a spell you won't want to break. [Jun 2009, p.102]
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There’s an extemporaneous feeling to A Ways Away that persists amid its clear recording quality and allows O’Neil to sing quietly as though she’s unsure of herself, while still underscoring a natural sort of confidence--she doesn’t have to sing loudly.
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She succeeds in a rare feat here, making a mood-sustaining record comprised of songs that only improve when listened to in sequence.
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78A Ways Away, O'Neil's fifth solo album and first on the K imprint, draws together her considerable experience as a producer, singer, and songwriter in a fleetingly beautiful 36 minutes that washes over the listener in an introspective haze.
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From the title on down, O'Neil invokes space and silence, guiding you through more sonic and emotional emptiness than you might think possible in 37 minutes.
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70No, it won’t blow the hat off your head, but a life-changing album simply isn’t as appropriate as a life-affirming one, as far as this artist is concerned, and A Ways Away is another clean bill of health for a long and rewarding career.
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It seems a little mean to judge this against song-based records - if anything, the narrative arc suggests it's 'about' the deterioration of meaning / tunefulness / drama into the inconsequentiality of real life; still, on its own terms, it's rather precious.