Marykate O’Neil Issue #39

Underground

By Kim Newman
Published: March 1st, 2009 | 2:57pm

Marykate O’Neil’s fourth release, Underground, features a retro ‘70s singer-songwriter sound. Like last year’s mkULTRA EP, Underground was co-produced by Jill Sobule who, along with Pedro the Lion’s Ken Maiuri, helps O’Neil skillfully bridge the gap between acoustic indie-folk and pop. From the track “Mr. Freidman,” which could hold its own against any Carly Simon tune, to “One Thousand Times a Day” with its infusion of Laura Nyro rhythm and blues, the album showcases O’Neil’s sweetly crystalline vocals.

It is an album that pushes flash-in-the-pan poplet Vanessa Carlton into a proper footnote; Marykate O’Neil is the appropriate artist to make piano-driven pop a radio staple. Album opener “Green Street” is a wistful yet buoyantly blissful song that reminiscences on a friendship that has slowly disintegrated with time (think Michelle Shocked’s “Anchorage”).

It is true that her musicianship is above par, but it’s the Brooklyn-based artist’s clever use of words that are most striking. O’Neil peppers colorful New York lyrical detail (from exiting the subway at Union Square on the title track, “Underground,” to meeting at McCarren Park in the yearning-filled “Attention”) throughout her sharp stories.