Owen Pallett – Heartland
I am not exactly a long-time fan of Owen Pallett’s music, this being the first release of his to which I have actually paid due attention. The first one I even heard of was He Poos Clouds, quite a while after its release, but I never really went back to have a good listen. Consequently I come to this album without any sort of context which, having had a good read of his Wikipedia page, seems like a pretty significantly disadvantage to understanding his music.
Or maybe not, maybe that sort of stuff doesn’t really matter too much. Too see the dominance of classical music, not only in Pallett’s background, but also in his other projects comes as no surprise after a quick listen to this record, and does seem to help explain the style of this, which is often theatrically classical. When this is at its height I find myself somewhat reminded of Come On Feel the Illinoise by Sufjan Stevens, and in fact that’s generally not a dreadful comparison, provided you apply it loosely. One may have started with acoustic folk and the other with classical, but they do seem to have met in the middle in places.
One of the odd things about Pallett’s music is his professed theming of his stuff. He doesn’t seem that interested in writing from a personal perspective, as such, or at least not lyrically anyway. He Poos Clouds was all about levels of magic in some fantasy game or other, apparently, and this one is about nothingness. At this level of abstraction I have to confess I have a tendency to cease paying attention to lyrics (which aren’t that clear anyway) and asking the more basic question: is the music enjoyable?
The answer to that is yes, but a somewhat qualified yes. Towards the beginning of the album the classical elements which run through this have a very theatrical bent, which I rather like. It’s flamboyant, but not ridiculous. Later on they smooth out somewhat and the music turns from something rather surprising into an altogether softer animal. The Great Elsewhere, Oh Heartland and Lewis Takes off His Shirt are all a bit squishy and I have to confess that at this point – around the halfway mark or so – I kind of lose interest.
When the orchestration becomes lush rather than sprightly it becomes simply an accentuation of a kind of soft pop, whereas at the beginning you are continually shifting back and forth between something which sounds like a movie soundtrack, more conventional indie songwriting and experimentalism, which I find considerably more enigmatic and satisfying. So I don’t know, I really like quite a bit of this, but there is also a fair bit which I find really quite forgettable, honestly speaking.
Owen Pallett – Keep the Dog Quiet
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Owen Pallett – Lewis Takes Action
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This is pretty much the same way I feel about this album (it’s also the first Final Fantasy / Owen Pallet album I’ve conscientiously listened to). I’ve played it a couple of times and enjoyed it, but never in such a way that it caught and kept my attention.
It’s the type of music I would put on as background music.
I have just streamed ‘Keep The Dog Quiet’ and it has grabbed me by the fucking balls. I have been a fan since I heard the Final Fantasy Bloc Party cover of This Modern Love so we shall see if this leaves me happy in the way that half a bottle of wine makes me numb yet happy.
Agreed Halina, that one’s a fucking peach.
Simon – well, the first half or so seems really promising, but it does peter out quite badly after that. I’d agree with the back ground music comment, but only after the first five songs or so.
These two songs are very good, but a little tamer than they need to be. He sounds like he has the chops to do something really fucking mental and dark, but is choosing not to. He should choose otherwise.
I never thought to put it that way, but I think you’re right actually.
I really like the dark undertones of these tunes but agree with C&B that he should really go for it. Does feel like he’s holding something back.
Holding back is the point, if you pay attention to the lyrics… The thing is with Owen is that you have to remember why he’s making music. He’s not making it so that anonymous strangers on the internet can grab a single free off a site like this and decide that it’ll go well on their ipod ‘train to work’ playlist. He’s an artist, through and through, creating works of vast intellectual reach and deep originality. As such, he’s not going for the easy path, “hmm a nice heavy bit would go well here, we really need to sell this song to as many people as possible”. He’s stepping back, saying, “what really matters here?” and the answer he comes up with is that it’s the unity and purpose of the album that matters. If you think of it like a film, or a short story, it makes complete sense.