Ona – American Fiction

It’s impossible to resist the deep, power-pop grooves on Ona’s debut album. But you get the sense that the band’s members know a thing or two about swaying hips. American Fiction is replete with songs of tragic women who keep falling into the arms of the wrong (presumably) guy. The music has just a touch too much of a psychedelic edge to become songs of the summer, but the tension these two influences creates makes the music powerful

Bradley Jenkins’ tired vocals seem to tell us all we need to know about the band’s small-town namesake, and it keeps the music down to earth. The band itself is a tight unit — just when the songs seem to sleep away into the surreal, the band brings us back to familiar territory. It’s evident that these songs have been carefully tempered over many hours. There’s a lot of heart in American Fiction — even when it’s buried under layers of that most American sentiment: bitter irony.

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