Owen Pallett - Heartland
Rating
RIYL
Arcade FireBeirut
Midlake
Release Date
01/11/2010
Label
DominoTracklist
1. Midnight Directives2. Keep the Dog Quiet
3. Mount Alpentine
4. Red Sun No. 5
5. Lewis Takes Action
6. The Great Elsewhere
7. Oh Heartland, Up Yours!
8. Lewis Takes Off His Shirt
9. Flare Gun
10. E Is for Estranged
11. Tryst with Mephistopheles
12. What Do You Think Will Happen Now?
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Where does one even begin to properly describe the strange, musical being Owen Pallett without just rattling off quite a large list of sometimes contradicting adjectives? Playing mostly under the moniker of Final Fantasy for a number of years, Heartland is the first full length he has released under his actual name. Don’t let the name change fool you, Final Fantasy was always a solo vehicle for Owen Pallett, featuring the occasional guest participant, and this disc doesn’t change the formula up much at all. Hardly a household name, Owen has participated with some of indie music’s biggest names and has, himself, built a prolific status among the snootier indie followers. His music can be both hauntingly gorgeous and abrasively erratic within the confines of a single track. Heartland finds Pallett delivering his most focused effort while still managing to cover a broad scope of sounds.
The first thing to be established is that Pallett obviously has a firm grasp on how to create beautifully lush instrumental pieces and can muster a song that could manage to please the most traditional of classical music fans while still engaging a more modern-centric listener. Outside of personal tastes, there is really nothing negative that could be said about this man’s musicianship, as is evidenced by his rather hefty resume of films, commercials, and contributions to keystone albums from bands such as Beirut and Arcade Fire (where he wrote the string arrangements). The only thing keeping Owen from mass success would be his often off-kilter subject matter and odd vocal stylings, and even those are completely acceptable on a listener-by-listener basis.
Heartland is reputedly the story of a character, referred to as Lewis, and his maker, which is played by Owen. That’s about as much of the narrative as this reviewer is able to really follow consistently. I partially blame the fact that his voice often is used as its own instrument, blending in and out of the cadence, not just words spouted out separately over top of the musical composition. Something about this album also creates an almost instant time-warp; from the time the album is put on, until the last track closes, everything becomes a blur of sounds and emotions. This doesn’t help establish an album full of stand-out singles, but rather creates a whole musical work best appreciated in one sitting and given one’s full attention. To somewhat contradict my last statement, I will note that “E is for Estranged” has to be one of my favorite songs from all of Owen’s releases; it's simply spectacular. The album also features a couple of tracks that have been floating around in one form or another for a little while and their revisions give them a refreshing new voice (more notably the new take on “Flare Gun” which was already a great song).
I could spout a few more paragraphs of lip service to this young composer’s abilities, but the best thing I could say is to give the entire album a spin with an open mind. This is not the type of album that will grab most people by the throat upon first listen, nor is it one that I can just point all entry level participants to the one “easy access” track to sum the entire work up. It’s a mature, well written body of work that is more about the journey than it is about grabbing a radio spot or lead titles of this summer’s latest blockbuster. It transcends most genre labeling and stands as its own unique sound, pure and unfiltered. I won’t be listening to this album on a daily basis, but every time I put it on, it’ll provide a solid experience from front to back and I expect it to age gracefully.
--Jeremy Deal
Comments
West Haven, CT
I love Final Fantasy.
The Cityscape Burns Brighter By The Hour.
Baltimore, MD
This album is pretty freaking good...and he puts on a ridiculous show for being basically a one-man act
Last.fm | RateYourMusic
Toronto, Ontario
I love Final Fantasy/Owen Pallett, but I can't get into this album no matter how hard I try. I do absolutely love his live show though.
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