Jennifer O’Connor has been putting out beautiful alt-country music for years now, lately under her own Kiam label, yet it’s always got lost a little bit in all the other great alt-country songstresses out there. For her latest, Surface Noise, O’Connor stands out a bit more by getting a bit more modern, though it’s still her tried-and-true ways that are the best.
The first part of Noise has a number of songs where keyboards/synthesizers take center stage, unusual for O’Connor. “Mountains”, “It’s a Lie”, and “Tell Me What You Need” all work, but still pale in comparison with the back half. “Down To the Wire” is impressively confessional, while “It’s Gonna Get Worse” is a great, catchy conversational piece. Meanwhile, “Don’t Talk To Me” is an upbeat ditty about a downbeat subject.
It’s not surprising that Jennifer O’Connor would try to go a bit more modern, including using the hot instrument these days, the synthesizer. But she’s still at her strongest when she’s at her core.
