Tara Jane O’Neil has returned with news of her first album in seven years. The follow-up to her 2017 self-titled effort is titled The Cool Cloud of Okayness, and it’s out April 26 on Orindal Records. Check out the lead single ‘Curling’ below’, along with the cover artwork and tracklist.
Recorded at O’Neil’s home studio in Upper Ojai, California, the new LP features contributions from her partner, dancer and choreographer Jmy James Kidd, drummer/percussionist Sheridan Riley of Alvvays, multi-instrumentalist Walt McClements, and, on a couple of tracks, guitarist Meg Duffy of Hand Habits.
Speaking about the new song, O’Neil shared in a statement:
‘Curling’ began as a bass figure, discovered on one of many afternoons in a desert studio inside the first year of the pandemic. Jmy Kidd and I spent the time there keeping our public practices of dance and music going but in private chambers of improvised realities. Most of the music on The Cool Cloud Of Okayness started in this way and then found fuller shape with time, intention, and Sheridan Riley on drums and Walt McClements on his effected accordion. Like mantra, propulsion, persuasion, ‘Curling’ is a repetitive drone piece, rendered as a lively jam.
Lyrically this became a portrait of a shapeshifter- transforming, transfiguring, evolving and surviving. With an eye toward the queer kids coming up in my hometown during this era of legislative oppression against inclusion, expression, and safety.
To quote another song from the record, ‘joy is a form of fight, We bright’
One step more, forward.
The Cool Cloud of Okayness Cover Artwork:
The Cool Cloud of Okayness Tracklist:
1. Cool Cloud of Okayness
2. Seeing Glass
3. Two Stones
4. We Bright
5. A Dash
6. Glass Island
7. Curling 05:32
8. Fresh End
9. Kaichan Kitchen
