Jenny O.

I BELIEVE IN LOVE AND CURIOSITY

Spectra is the fourth full-length album by Jenny O. It is a celebration of the universal and the organic – a manual straight from the soul on how to love practically and unconditionally, in all directions. Spectra is the staggering result of Jenny O.’s contemplation on what it means to be a weirdo, to communicate, and -ultimately- to be useful.

Spectra transports the listener to a warm and luminous innerworld thanks to the masterful production of Kevin Ratterman (My Morning Jacket, S.G. Goodman, Andrew Bird). The record opens with Jenny at the Hammond B3 organ on “Pleasure In Function”. The drums—performed by Josh Adams throughout Spectra—almost weep, tumble and leap with reverence; while Baroque zither clangs, juts of mellotron strings, and choral call-and-response instigate pure psychedelia. The next track “You Are Loved Eternally” is a hymn straight from the Church of Rock ’n’ Roll. It’s jangle heaven, disarming the uneasy children of the universe with a playful bop and a simple mantra.

But Jenny O. writes outside of genre and Spectra contains multitudes. Technicolor slow jams like “Prism”, “The Natural World” and “Golden” are stitched between musings in punk and new wave. “Advice At A Dinner Party” is a futuristic synthesizer fantasy. “There Is A Club” is a demented outsider’s anthem and rowdy a cappella jolt that drops right into “Solitary Girl”, a tough, fuzz strut with the murky mischief of the glam greats.

Jenny O. played the guitar, bass, synthesizers, and more on Spectra. She grew up on Long Island, NY in a household that worshiped early rock ’n’ roll. She is a classically trained composer and double bassist who studied jazz and experimented with trip-hop in the early 2000s before making her way to California and back to rock ’n’ roll. Jenny’s first two albums Automechanic and Peace & Information were made with Jonathan Wilson. Spectra is her second album with Kevin Ratterman, following 2020’s New Truth. She has toured with legends like Sixto Rodriguez and Violent Femmes, contemporaries like Father John Misty and Faye Webster, and performed vocals on recordings by Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Conor Oberst, and Jim James.

Spectra is out February 24th, 2023 on Mama Bird Recording Co.