(3/6/5) 008: Lisa O'Neill - Old Note
All Of This Is Chance, my favourite album of 2023, begins with Lisa O’Neill on a hillside, muddied and wind-swept. You get the feeling that had it stayed only there, singing of the things it could see and feel, it would still offer something brilliant and peculiar, however, when it takes to the skies, when it climbs into the thin places between, it finds new ways of telling old stories, growing into the swooping masterpiece it undoubtedly is - unquantifiable as such things are.
Led by a voice that can sing lines such as “The peacock is a stunning bird, his song is iridescent” without it ever sounding twee, or, indeed, anything less than fascinating, Lisa O’Neill floods every corner of the album with a warm-blooded intensity that feels more traditional and revolutionary, depending on how and where the light falls upon it. Centred around the notion of its title, O’Neill peels way the layers of the modern world to search for freedom and spontaneity amid the ruthless pursuit of disconnection we find ourselves in.
Often playful, in spite of such themes, it’s the haunting ‘Old Note’ that steals the whole show, however. An ambitious and sprawling orchestral ballad, it sees O’Neill’s voice hover amid the swelling instrumentation as she sings of desire in the moment and the desire to exist long after “among the song of birdies”. Ambiguous but utterly striking, it closes with a child’s voice, evocative and plaintive: “The song is over. The song is old. The song is over that's why she's sad that's why she's lying down,” they whisper.
As with so much of All Of This Is Chance, it’s never clear what we should be taking from it or why it all resonates quite as deeply as it so often does, but, like a bird caught in the wind, it’s best to just give yourself up to it and see where it takes you. After all, you never know what you might find in landing.
Listen to 'Old Note' on GFP / Bandcamp
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