Dave's Owen Pallet Review

Before the review gets underway - just wanted to say I've been lobster fishing in the Northumberland Strait for the last week, and have loved it. Here's a pic, to prove it. Now onto the review

For me Owen Pallet has always been a unique question on the musical landscape – is he pop music evolved? Or is he accessible high art? One in the same we could say really.

For Heartland, Owen Pallet seems to be working on a higher level than I expected of him to. There are layers of sounds, experiments, and textures that upon first listen for me were frustrating, but the more I listened to them the more I listened for them. I must admit, I didn’t think Heartland would be as intense to listen to as it has become for me. It’s really evolved into an experience over the last week.

What strikes me about this album more than anything is the mood of it. It has every right to be pretentious and inaccessible, but it’s welcoming and warm. It gives a humorless vibe to it, but it’s got a tongue in it’s cheek at times. Heartland is full of heart, and is one of the more “human” albums I’ve listened to in a long time.

For Owen Pallet, this album is an accomplishment – he’s been hiding under the Final Fantasy moniker for years, and working for other people (writing, producing, composing) successfully for years. Heartland feels like the true man behind all that, finally with enough wisdom and confidence to present himself to the world. It’s admirable really. And it’s very appropriate that the last track on the album is What Do You Think Will Happen Now?

DAVE’S KEY TRACKS: ‘The Great Elsewhere”; ‘E Is for Estranged’; ‘Red Sun No. 5’; ‘Oh Heartland, Up Yours’