Review - Owen Pallett - Heartland - 8.9/10.0

Whereas most artists inhabit a genre, Owen Pallet, nee Final Fantasy, is a genre of his own; for some time consistently churning out some of our generation’s most original compositions and lending his quirky bleeding heart orchestrations to heroes of the 00’s, like Arcade Fire, Grizzly Bear, F*cked Up, as well as older acts like the Pet Shop Boys.

His latest release is a self-proclaimed concept album, but does it really matter? I’ve always thought the majority of concept albums utilized the concept to augment and distract from disjointed musical themes and occasional droughts in originality. But here, you’re distracted from the story by a deluge of polyphony and pomp, Owen’s trademark. It’s not as good thing… it’s a great thing.

Yet, on songs like “Red Sun No. 5,” and “Oh Heartland, Up Yours!,” the artist strips all that away demonstrating a proficiency in simplicity, and it tickles. Using his own voice as an instrument, with little to none of his beloved violin, he manages to play quietly and produce climax in silence.

Of course no record of his would be complete without anthems like album opener “Midnight Directives,” and “Keep the Dog Quiet.” These are not show tunes, they're mired in vagaries like, "My body is a cage/This union is a cage about a cage about a cage," followed shortly by "Mount Alpentine," in which Owen employs dissonance to pluck any doubt on the meaning of his lyrics from your mind.

This album is not extremely different than what Owen has thus far supplied his audience with, and part of that makes me want to lower the rating of this album, but, the album is a return to form from his last two EP’s which were slightly more experimental in nature. Heartland reconnects with fans and reestablishes Owen as an individual deserving of an eventual inclusion in the Pantheon of North American composers and popular musicians.

Edit: You can stream the new album in it's entirety here, and purchase it here.