When
Tara Jane O'Neil performs, she mostly looks down at her shoes, anchored to one spot, holding her guitar close, as if she'd like to pull the instrument as far inward as possible. Inevitably, this will strike some audience members as attitude, shyness or intensity of focus. They should shut their eyes, then, because what's important is how O'Neil floods the room with guitar chords as wide as a Montana sky and a voice that reaches high enough to chase them. O'Neil describes the faraway haze she creates with her music as "good to have breakfast to," and her new album,
In Circles, follows the same solemn, bare model as the rest of her output since the breakup of her quintessential Chicago indie band Rodan. So bring your own bacon, but by all means submit to the music's grave demand for silence.
— Saby Reyes-Kulkarni
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