The Co Clare singer-songwriter Susan O’Neill, doesn’t mess around with trivialities. Apparitions, the opening track on her seriously impressive second solo album, lays out a grim lie of the land: “Living is all I have to die for/ Ask myself the question / Do I live or die this way?/ Choices, oh so many voices in my head/ But I know the one that calls my name.”
Thankfully, the voice that calls her name is ultimately the same one that delivers the 12th and final track, the life-affirming gospel-influenced Give You My All: “I’ll give you my all / Give it tenfold / It might not be much / But I’ll share all I hold / I’ll do it all heart / Knowing the truth / My life is made up by just knowing you.” That track is dedicated to her nieces.
The characters who occupy the intervening tracks pose more challenging questions on themes such as love, fidelity, ambition, anxiety, disillusion and the lot of women in the 21st century. It is a heavy agenda but one filtered through music full of nuance, invention and charm, a lightness of touch where single piano notes hang in the air happy to carry the weight of the moment.
O’Neill’s seasoned soulful voice sets the tone throughout, vulnerable one minute, assertive the next. She wastes no emotion. Every song is lived, cranked up to elicit her truth, dramatically fading to her lone voice or carried along in sweeping multivocal choruses. The roots are in alt-folk, but her music references more eclectic influences.
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Mick Flannery, with whom O’Neill partnered on the celebrated 2021 album In the Game, cowrote four tracks, including the riveting pair Lilt and Too Many Ways. She was joined in the studio by the Wexford musician brothers Cillian and Lorcan Byrne; Killian Browne (piano) and Alan Comerford (guitar) also helped out.
Not all tracks are equal in their impact. But the glow from the likes of Hail, Drive, Bright Eyes, Lilt, the oh-so-tender Malachi and the gorgeous feelgood closer, Give You My All, ensure that the listener returns. And it gets better each time.
