Heartland by Owen Pallett
LABEL: Domino Recording Company

It has become clear to me as I review more albums that I can generally tell how I’m going to feel about an album within the first 10 seconds of the first track. It will evoke something that sort of stabs my soul in it’s center, causing me to shout, “WHAT IS THIS?!?!”, make my eyes widen a bit, and make me think, “Huh, this sounds cool”, or make me grimace and want to shut it off, and put on something that I know I like.

Heartland, Owen Pallett’s third album, and the first released under his own name, and not his alias, Final Fantasy, falls into the first category. The first few seconds are the rich whirling sounds of a church organ, soon to be layered with these angelic sounding “Ohhhh Ohhhh”’s layered on top of each other. It made me stop. I knew that I was about to listen to something extraordinary.    

“I think a true sign of musical genius: the ability to create something magical, magnificent and original, that lacks the pretension that would otherwise keep it from being accessible to the willing listener.”

The thing that I find the most striking about this album is that even though it is original to the point of being avant-garde, and contains incredibly complex writing, it is completely accessible. I would even go so far as to say some songs are quite catchy. Since I’ve begun listening to this a couple of days ago, I seem to continually have one of the songs playing in my head. This is such a rare thing in music, and I think a true sign of musical genius: the ability to create something magical, magnificent and original, that lacks the pretension that would otherwise keep it from being accessible to the willing listener.  

Owen seamlessly blends genres of classical, electronic, and rock music culminating in a stunning blend of genre, era and style. His melodies are incredibly creative, whether it’s his fiercely atonal vocal line on ‘"Mount Alpentine" or the more tonal, verse-like vocal melodies of "Red Sun No. 5." His layering of voice, instrumentation, and electronic coloring flow in and out and over each other, and he uses each one like a master painter creating a visually stunning landscape from globs of paint.

As a whole this album is flawless. Each time I listen to it, it KILLS me. Absolutely KILLS me. After each listen I feel like I’ve been taken on an a journey. Each one different from the one before. I know it may seem like I’m jumping the gun, but Heartland is going to be on my best of list for 2010—perhaps, on top of it.


REVIEWED BY LYNN SHER
STANDOUT TRACKS: “Midnight Directives” • “Lewis Takes Off His Shirt” • “What Do You Think Will Happen Now?”
You can listen to Lynn’s work in The SaVAgE KiNGs on myspace



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Analogue 0: Final Fantasy interview & 'Lewis Takes Off His Shirt' (Live) from Analogue on Vimeo.