Quick Before it Melts

Sunday 17 January 2010

QBiM SPiNS: Owen Pallett, Heartland

What’s in a name?  Is identity defined by that which we call ourselves or by who we are?  Shakespeare wondered about roses, but what about trademarks?  Will releasing Heartland as Owen Pallett make it any different than if it were under his old Final Fantasy name?  The short answer is no, obviously.  Heartland was conceived and created well before Pallett chose to avoid courting copyright infringement any further.  Name change or not, it is what it is.

A more interesting question is: has the mystique and aura of Final Fantasy diminished any now that Pallett no longer operates behind a nom de plume?  Again, the short answer is no, but there’s a long, more complicated consideration that leaves some room for discussion.

What always made Final Fantasy so intriguing was that it was mostly all Pallett, playing along to loops of himself, creating the entire musical experience from his instrument and voice.  As the songs grew more intricate and required additional players to flesh them out, the mad genius seemed to be giving away more and more of his secrets.  Rather than diminish the mystery, that just heightened the humanity.  Heartland, the concept album about a shirtless farmer named Lewis who lives in the land of Spectrum and is battling with his god (a guy named Owen Pallett, it seems) is his most passionate and human work.  His compositions remind me so much of Rufus Wainwright’s, in that both artists have an impeccable understanding of classical music structure, and how to bend and twist it to create arresting contemporary music that honours it’s heritage while simultaneously pushing into the future.  He references Mephistopheles and “a Disney kid in cut-offs and a ‘beater” like it’s no effort whatsoever.  He’s become a painter whose palette (pardon the pun) is a sonic collage of colour.  He’s bettered “This Is the Dream of Win and Regine” with “Lewis Takes Off His Shirt”, and he’s given us the marker with which 2010′s music will forever be measured against.

What’s in a name then? Nothing really, because on Heartland, Owen Pallett has put it all into the music.  “Boys all want to be someone,” he sings on “E For Estranged”.  Owen Pallett wants to be himself, it seems, and that’s perfectly fine with me.

MP3: Owen Pallett “Lewis Takes Off His Shirt”
Myspace: Owen Pallett

by J. Di Gioia | No Comments »

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 17th, 2010 at 10:30 am and is filed under MP3, QBiM SPiNS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.