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Tara Jane O’Neil: In Circles Label: Quarterstick Records Released: 2006

So as I write this, I am trying to remember my manhood. My manhood tells me that driving guitars and deep toms are what make music great. But then – and stop me if you've heard this before – something takes over. No, not my girl’s vagina. The sounds of those instruments. The melodica, flute, steel guitar...okay, maybe not the steel guitar. But those instruments take me away on some magical journey and suddenly I feel like I’m walking on the beach as the sun is rising with a "not so fresh" woman and it is okay, because I UNDERSTAND. I've been there. Once, after a weekend of binge drinking, I skipped “the Monday shower” and I know THAT feeling.

Probably more than you needed to know (or can ever forget), so let's move on. The instruments featured on Tara Jane O’Neil's newest record In Circles, along with her smooth and familiar voice, weave a melodic tapestry that is both soothing and yet slightly unsettling. How does this skirt look with these shoes? The bass line mildly mocks the instrumentation and these pictures start to form in your brain. Pictures of abstract people uncomfortable in their own skin in muted tones dancing through incomplete environments. It's kinda creepy, but the good kind of creepy. And get this: O’Neil is also a painter. Some of us don't get any talent, and here she is brimming over. Luckily I’m blessed with an exorbitant amount of talent. I can play the nose flute and I know that race car spelled backwards is still race car. Damn, I just blew your mind!

So here is my suggestion to you, my manly friends (I have to keep reminding myself): look at her art, put her music on your iPod, grab a picnic basket, a bottle of wine, and go sit by the fountain in the park (and pray to see at least one pooping dog – laughing at pooping dogs always bring you back down a notch). And while you’re praying to see a pooping dog, be sure to pray that your friends don’t see you. You frigging girl.

So, at the end of the day, will this record make me stand in line for a reinvented Lilith Fair? Probably not. Could it get you laid if you’re trying to nail a feminist? Probably