TAMAR BERK: ocd

ocd feels and sounds like perfect road trip music. Soft, harmonizing vocals, mixed with dreamy pop sounds permeate your senses and feels like a good long car ride. Perhaps that is because the opening track references a break from life with a chorus of “we always say we should get high and go for a ride,” but the rest of the album suits the same feeling.

Tamar Berk is a veteran of the Chicago and Portland music scenes with her various bands, including Starball, the Countdown, and the Pynnacles, but her solo career started just five years ago. This is Tamar Berk’s fifth solo studio album since 2021; she never seems to stop producing and putting out great music that just slides into your brain and never leaves. This album is no different, while giving a deeper peek into her consciousness.

The title track lends itself to rolling drums, played by co-producer Matt Walker (Filter, Smashing Pumpkins), which makes your head bop while also being deeply emotionally driven, making you sing it “over and over and over” because you can’t help but relate, at least from my perspective. Then the rocking, yet powerful “you ruined this city for me” feels like an anxiety attack (in a good way?) with almost rap-like vocals that tell the subject how unsafe they made her feel over the driving guitars played by Charlee Berlin (The Inflorescence).

As the album progresses, we get “there are benefits to mixed emotions,” another look into Berk’s brain with a vocal hook that assures you “it’s okay if we don’t really know.” Again, her relatable lyrics bring you into her life and show you that you’re not alone in these complicated feelings. Next, we hear “time zone,” with its infectious synth sounds and layered vocals that just make you want to get up and dance.

Berk gives you almost a sixties power-pop girl group sound with “i had a dream i was lost in an auditorium,” a story with a horn section that gets you dancing, lent by Everett Kelly on trumpet and flugelhorn, followed by heartbreaking nostalgia with “any given weeknight.” You can feel the love she pours into her songwriting, while also adding fun flair that makes you want to move. In “indiesleaze 2005,” we are met with punctuated programmed drum beats layered with lyrics that lament those that took advantage of having a little fame. It feels personal, yet also universal, to hear these lyrics reminding the subject that they’re a “sad, sad case of a lost American dream.”

Then the album takes a turn to a hopeful, yet sad song that hits you at the core in “my turn will come.” Simple piano and synth drive the melody, with cello played by Erdis Maxhelaku, leading a soft ride into a percussion filled chorus. Tamar Berk’s lyrics maneuver around dark subjects while offering a look into her life and what she is going through at any given time. She’s joined by Christopher Marsteller (The Loons) on a killer lead guitar lick on “i’m in the day after,” a look at dwelling on past events instead of looking ahead.

Nearing the end of the album we come to “tell me why,” a pared-down folk tribute with just vocals, guitar, and harmonica. The song takes you by surprise with its simple but poignant lyrics that are reminiscent of ’70s protest songs. The album ends with “ghost stories,” an anthem that sums up the journey we’ve just been on. Drums build and build as a guitar solo, played by Isaiah Mitchell (Earthless), takes over the end of the song as it leaves us with these thoughts: “They say sadness flows through the quiet of letting go, and they say anger has its own momentum. These are my ghost stories. This is my own story.”

Overall, the album has almost a “wall-of-sound” feel with the synth layers, occasional strings, horn sections, and harmonizing vocals. Tamar Berk has done it again with a masterpiece of songwriting and production.