Jennifer O’Connor Issue #29

Over the Mountain (Matador)

By Sonia Pereira Murphy
Published: September 1st, 2006 | 12:00am

If an album’s worth can be measured by how quickly the listener sings along to the tunes, then Over the Mountain is a mighty fine record indeed. Jennifer O’Connor’s third full-length pounds out an uncanny stew of cute pop songs and melancholy tunes rife with heartache.

With a frank but certainly not jaded demeanor, O’Connor displays her talent with guitar jangles, succinct beats, and the sometime poetic gem. “Dirty City Blues,” a surprisingly welcoming ditty about a montage of grave topics — breaking up, moving to a new city, and worrying about an ill sibling — oozes winsome winners like, “I will love you like the woodpecker can only love the tree.” The song’s brisk tone perfectly precedes the carefree toe-tapping and show-stopping “Exeter, Rhode Island.” “Sister” is musically poppy and light despite the fact that it tells of the passing of O’Connor’s sister. It brings on somberness with the line, “When the phone rings late at night there’s no way it’s ever gonna be right ever again.” Clearly, this is a songwriter with a lot on her mind but with enough sweet temperament to morph grief into thoughtful beauty.

Nowhere is O’Connor more in this kind of insightful, pretty mood than on “Today.” Its slow, acoustic, sweet love-song vibe might just have you lying on the floor, dreaming about your first love. However, O’Connor’s also an artist full of caprice, and “Bullshit Maze” dazzles with its stop and start staccato march. On a whole, a gorgeous record loaded with the most touching things in life: hope and tragedy.