Final Fantasy guys' new album

I'm of course talking about Owen Pallett's new album, Heartland. I've never really been a huge Final Fantasy fan. Now that doesn't mean I'm not an Owen Pallett fan. He's done such great compositions for bands like Arcade Fire, Fucked Up, Grizzly Bear, The Mountain Goats, Beirut, and so on and so forth. I'm REALLY excited to see his work on the new Arcade Fire album... but until then my unquenchable music lust for Owen Pallett's contributing compositional work will have to be filled by Owen Pallets lesser heard (and for me, liked) solo work. Now for some reason (maybe it's the name change) I actually kind of dig his new stuff. Say what you want about Pallett, he knows how to arrange a song. My only complaint is that the album really doesn't fair as well in the first half as it does in the second half. The album ranges from moments that are challenging, monotonous and slow, to moments that are upbeat, poppy and intricate. Gee, I wonder which ones I prefer? While the tame sections aren't bad by any means, they certainly get bogged down when compared to the brighter moments on the record (like the amazing, catchy and incredibly intricate song structure of "Tryst With Mephistopheles"). Maybe if the album mixed up the songs a little more so that a more upbeat track separated two stripped down, tame tracks.. then I wouldn't find as much fault. But like most good (not great) albums, if you can weed your way through the few uninteresting tracks there is a lot to be loved here.




Heartland