Owen Pallett - Heartland

Owen Pallett
Heartland

Having cast off his former moniker Final Fantasy, Owen Pallett returns with Heartland, his first full length album since 2006’s He Poos Clouds.

Retiring Final Fantasy in order to release Heartland, it might be assumed that Pallett was offering something quite different from previous efforts, something stripped down, something less ethereal and something more down-to-earth. Every bit as breathlessly epic as former ventures, Heartland is in fact a natural progression and a decisive maturing. Musically taut with a lyrical elegance not exactly lacking in previous work, but perhaps less coyly inconspicuous, Heartland is infused with a rather adult confidence and clarity. Pallett, it seems, has grown up.

Having said this, Pallett has stated that Heartland is a concept album. “The songs themselves form a narrative concerning a farmer named Lewis and the fictional world of Spectrum,” he said. “The songs are one-sided dialogues with Lewis, a young, ultra-violent farmer, speaking to his creator.” Right. Though this concept is apparent in some songs, it is absent in others and often feels like a veneer Pallett has created in lieu of his Final Fantasy shroud, as something else to protect himself.

An album with the breadth and diversity offered by Heartland can be, at times, overwhelming. Pallett however sidesteps this inserting catchy pop hooks into otherwise densely baroque arrangements; hooks that should sit at odds with the tone of the music but somehow don’t. ‘Oh Heartland, Up Yours!’ pulsates and lingers with a dulcet liquidity. ‘E is For Estranged’ is a work of soaring classical beauty, piqued with a gorgeous, dancing violin sound before sliding into a maudlin sort of deflation. Despite the fact Pallett is known primarily as the violin loop guy, he never allows this novelty to carry the songs, and it’s all too easy to intermittently tune into a particularly lovely loop whilst forgetting that it is what he actually does.

A considerably more measured and controlled album than earlier records, this is very occasionally at the expense of atmosphere and anticipation found in his prior music. Where there was once a sense that his songs could go anywhere or take any direction, there is now a feeling that he is a little bit too sensible for all of that, now. There is also, however, safety in that.

The album’s haunting final lines ‘The sun is up/My arms are wide/I am a good man/I am yours,’ delivered with an almost languid control, suggest in eschewing his erstwhile video game inspired nom de plume, Pallett might be doing just that. Throwing out his arms, stepping forward and presenting himself fully and uncompromisingly as the artist he is. Or, you know, it might be because of copyright.

Heartland is out now on Domino.

By Lara Williams