Radio Exile | Marykate O’Neil

Marykate O’Neil – mkULTRA Review

By K Sawyer Paul - October 28, 2008 | Email the author

The first thing that comes up when I type “mkULTRA” into Google is a startling Wikipedia entry about a secret government mind control experiment. Here’s a troubling quote:

“Project MK-ULTRA, or MKULTRA, was the code name for a covert CIA mind-control and chemical interrogation research program, run by the Office of Scientific Intelligence. The program began in the early 1950s, continuing at least through the late 1960s, and it used United States citizens as its test subjects. There is much published evidence that the project involved the surreptitious use of many types of drugs, as well as other methodology, to manipulate individual mental states and to alter brain function.”

This is troubling not because of the conspiracy, but because Marykate O’Neil’s [Official Site, MySpace] newest 6-song EP is named after it, and on the surface has absolutely nothing to do with it. That makes this reviewer worry. I’m sorry, but actively listening to audio files named after a mind control experiment makes me a little uneasy.

Creepy sci-fi allusions aside, I’d like to recommend this EP, as it’s a relatively safe entry into the easy indie category of new songstresses. O’Neil’s voice is reminiscent of Beth Orton, as is her arrangements. Mixing light guitar and piano across underscored electronica has always been a nice formula, and she delivers it with just enough zeal to want more. Perhaps not much more, as each song more or less bleeds into the next, creating no real high or low-light.

The best song by far is “Green Street,” a natural country-folk romp of hope and wanting. “And now you live in New Jersey, you have three kids and you’re busy, fighting the gridlock and the 9-5,” she sings, painting a properly sad soliloquy that would be tragic if she wasn’t trying so hard to be sunny-sounding. That’s really the only thing I have to say in criticism towards these songs. I would believe in her characters so much more if she wasn’t deliberately smiling through the whole thing.

Still, a happy sounding singer is rarely a grating one, and the EP does make me want to research this young artist, if only because she shows a few signs of intelligent cynicism through those pearly whites. “I used to have dreams to accomplish great things/but now all I be is happy” is a great line from “Happy,” a song that wouldn’t be unwelcome on a Placebo album, for example. She also seems to have a wealth of indie-pop friends, from Josh Rouse to Pedro the Lion to Jill Sobule, so that’s interesting too. I’m seeing good things coming out of her, so yes, please, support her.

Score: 3/5

“Green Street” [mp3]
“Trouble” [mp3]