Despite the fact that the name Tarnation hasn't graced a CD spine in more than a decade, this isn't really a reunion. For one thing, Tarnation were primarily a vehicle for Georgia-born, San Francisco-based Paula Frazer, who migrated to art-country after the dissolution of her Bay Area punk outfit Frightwig disbanded in 1992. Furthermore, besides Frazer, no one from any of Tarnation's previous albums plays on Now It's Time. In fact, several of these performers backed her on her last solo album, Leave the Sad Things Behind-- particularly multi-instrumentalist Patrick Main, Frazier's primary collaborator.
It's more than just semantic, though. Now It's Time doesn't sound like a Tarnation reunion for the simple reason that this band doesn't sound like Tarnation. On Gentle Creatures in 1995 and Mirador in 1997, Frazer and her coterie of alternating Tarnaters made an unholy racket in the reverently quiet halls of alt-country, drenching spaghetti western guitars and high-lonesome vocals in canyon reverb-- more Morricone than Parsons or Cash. So Now It's Time is just another Frazer solo album. Nothing wrong with that, except that it makes the album's double billing seem particularly redundant.
Over the course of a decade and two solo albums, the old weirdness streaking through the 90s Tarnation albums-- which essentially made eerie atmosphere a punk pursuit-- has gradually ossified into a gentler, less remarkable listening experience: The punk element has all but disappeared, leaving only easy atmosphere. The music on Now It's Time is minimal and restrained, occasionally striking but mostly polite and tasteful. The songs have their distinguishing musical characteristics-- piano on "Bitter Rose", dulcimer on "Shadows"-- but they all strike the same vaguely mournful note and so tend to blur together. Things finally come together on the title track, which is drenched in welcome reverb and shows Frazer testing the limits of her voice, pushing its range so that it strains on the high notes. That's the only time when the lyrics and melody truly challenge the singer, but that's the second-to-last track on the album, so she cannot build on the moment.
For many, Frazer's voice is the main draw to any of her albums, whether they bear her own name or Tarnation's. Her puncturing twang has softened over the year, but she remains as nimble as ever. Like the bird pictured on the album cover, she flutters in her upper register, light and lonesome, especially on "First Sign" and "Another Day". When she sings low, her voice becomes sharp and testy-- an interested contrast that she never pursues satisfactorily. With no strong songs to give it shape and no compelling music to give it purpose, Frazer's vocals sound lovely but a little distant, which is the curse of the album itself. Now It's Time is easy on the ears, but hard on the memory.
