Final Fantasy was a lame name for the experimental rock artist Owen Pallett. Naming yourself after a video game gives the wrong impression to anyone who doesn't know Pallett's musical qualities. The growth that Pallett has shown on his third album Heartland not only articulate his quality as a musician but as a composer as well with beautifully arranged string and orchestra pieces.
According to Pallett, Heartland is based on a "young, ulta-violent farmer" named Lewis who is controlled by an all-powerful narrator named Owen. The songs are all one-sided dialogues with Lewis speaking to Owen. The lyrics reflect theological questions about the nature of fate and deep topics. But all in all, Pallett just says it's about him.
Pallett's skill as a composer is showcased beautifully through and through on Heartland. From the plucked "bass line" of cellos, basses and violins on "Keep the Dog Quiet" to the very moving string movement towards the end of "The Great Elsewhere", the influence of classical music just reeks through the music. Besides just being a classical junkie, Pallett also shows his musicianship with very fitting and mellow keyboard lines that especially fit on tracks like "Lewis Takes Off His Shirt" and "Red Sun No. 5".
The very insightful lyrics that Pallett inscribes on the musical barriers are lucid and fit with the mood of the album. "The sun sped accross the plains like the cinematic moment/Where humanity and nature collide," breaths Pallett on the more tense quiet moments on "Tryst With Mephistopheles". Pallett speaks a lot of epic randomness that floods the album. The lyrics read like a incredibly confusing short story that is based on one theme of psychology.
Pallett evokes emotion like no other baroque pop artist I've come in contact with. A feeling of triumph is felt every time I play "Lewis Takes Off His Shirt". The feeling of conquering dominance and pushing through is just emitted through that track and is corresponded with the rest of the LP.
A first listen of Heartland may not sound as gentle and flowing as a third of fourth listen. The baroque pop qualities never falter to a less suitable sound that doesn't satisfy the hunger for a very diverse style album. Who needs electric guitars and fancy drum sets when you can have full rich mellow orchestrations. The soaring lyrics that gently slide over the orchestrations of Pallett are beautiful and define a very beautiful baroque pop album.
Overall: 8.6/10.0
Track Listing:
1. Midnight Directives - 9.0 2. Keep the Dog Quiet - 9.0 3. Mount Alpentine - 8.0 4. Red Sun No. 5 - 8.5 5. Lewis Takes Action - 8.5 6. The Great Elsewhere - 8.5 7. Oh Heartland, Up Yours! - 9.5 8. Lewis Takes Off His Shirt - 9.0 9. Flare Gun - 8.0 10. E Is For Estranged - 8.5 11. Tryst With Mephistopheles - 9.0 12. What Do You Think Will Happen Now? - 8.5
PAST FAVORITES is the newest feature I will be starting. It will feature reviews of albums that I truly love from the past. This time's past favorite is Radiohead's fifth LP Amnesiac. I will try and do a past favorite every so often in a month. Enjoy.
My favorite band is Radiohead. I'm sure many of you that know me well know this. My favorite record by any band is Radiohead's fourth LP Kid Aand close behind Kid A is the very critically acclaimed album Ok Computer. After Ok Computer, I've always loved their sophomore LP that skyrocketed their fame from a typical brit-pop band into a new alternative rock giant, it is called The Bends. After my love of The Bends their latest album In Rainbows and then followed by Hail To the Thief. But one album by Radiohead always seems to be overshadowed by past favorites, at least for me. It is called Amnesiac.
Just one year after the highly successful and shocking electronic driven album Kid A, their fifth album Amnesiac contains a lot of music that was recorded during the Kid A sessions, therefore the music has the same twitcty electronic feel that Kid A was famous for, but Amnesiac has a more deep connection to the influence of jazz. You can just hear the off-beat swing pattern of drummer Phil Selway on epic downer "Pyramid Song" and the most jazzy Radiohead song to date which features the English jazz musician Humphrey Lyttleton, "Life In a Glass House" is like a very clean avant-garde jazz piece with a singer.
Besides just having the jazzy songs that really just show the true Radiohead, there is the most rock-oriented song "I Might Be Wrong" and the electronic twitcy songs of "Packt Like Sardines In a Crushed Tin Box" and "Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors" that explore more of the ambient drone of Radiohead. One of the most challenging and interesting songs that Radiohead has to offer on this LP is "Like Spinning Plates" which is what it sounds like, but it is actually a song that Radiohead recorded and then played it backwards and it sounded more sutable for them, so they left it to be backwards on the LP.
Amnesiac seems to be more dark and depressing as opposed to Kid A. Kid A was like an impending doom on the horizon, it was hallow emptyness. But Amnesiac is like entering the doom and fighting it into a hallow of depression. "Dollars & Cents" explores the necessities of money and now the world is completely run on money ("We are the dollars and cents and the pounds and pence/And the mark and the yen"). "Pyramid Song" might be one of the saddest and most revealing song ever written by Thom Yorke (" Jumped into the river what did I see?/Black-eyed angels swim with me"), usually the lead guitarist Jonny Greenwood takes it true musical abilities to a new height and writes a orchestration for "Pryamid Song" and uses the unusual instrument ondes Marternot which creates the siren-like wailing heard throughout the song.
When I listened to Amnesiac for the first time, I couldn't stand it. I thought it wasn't that great, but like Kid A it really takes about four listens to truly grasp the beauty of the album and see it's true influences. "Knives Out" is probably the most accessible song that Radiohead has to offer on Amnesiac, it sounds like it should be on The Bends, but it is deeper and the lyrics reflect it, it's like a "Street Spirit Pt. 2" ("I wanted you to know/He's not coming back/Look into my eyes/I'm not coming back"). The other easy to listen to song is "You and Whose Army?" the very building song that will just build up and explode out into a very jazzy piano line that sounds like a gospel song and the yells of "You and whose army?" by Thom Yorke make for a very interesting and addicting listen.
Now that I look back in my favorites of Radiohead's catalog, Amnesiac will be very high, maybe not beating Kid A or Ok Computer, but a pretty close third in front of The Bends. It's kind of like a sequel to Kid A and I never really saw that, I just was frustrated at how much I really didn't like it, but now I think it's a classic. Though some songs do lack the luster to make a really fantastic album, it is still a worthy choice. Overall: 8.9/10.0
Track Listing:
1. Packt Like Sardines In a Tin Box - 9.0 2. Pyramid Song - 10.0 3. Pulk/Pull Revolving Door - 8.5 4. You and Whose Army? - 9.5 5. I Might Be Wrong - 7.5 6. Knives Out - 9.5 7. Morning Bell/Amnesiac - 8.0 8. Dollars & Cents - 9.5 9. Hunting Bears - 8.5 10. Like Spinning Plates - 9.0 11. Life in a Glass House - 9.5
