The first I heard of Owen Pallett was on a mixtape given to me by an Australian friend. She had included the song The CN Tower Belongs to the Dead amongst 15 or so other songs that tried quite hard to prove she had a cooler taste in music than me (I responded with a cd starting with Guns 'n' Roses to prove that I didn't care). It was undoubtedly one of the highlights and I eventually bought his two albums as Final Fantasy. Some time later he played in a church in Cardiff and it was a lovely show. Watching one man with just a violin and a loop pedal play such intricate songs was fascinating and impressive in equal measures. The applause was so great he even played a few songs unplugged in the car park afterwards for us. I'd heard of bands doing that but never seen it. I've also never seen so many people so deadly quiet, just listening. It was a very good show indeed.
A few months after Heartland came out I was in Cardiff for the weekend, so went back into Spillers (where I'd spent many hours during the time I lived in Wales). I bought a few things, including this LP, in what would turn out to be my last trip to Spillers before they moved into the arcade. Whilst Banquet serves me well for punk records, Spillers is still the place to go for alternative indie things like this. For probably quite a few reasons, I never got into this one properly, so I'm going to sit back and listen to it now.
Well, it's now forty-five minutes later and I'm slightly more keen on the record than I was before. Lewis Takes Action through to Lewis Takes His Shirt Off are all great songs, as is the closer. The rest still doesn't quite grab me. Concept records are often tricky (the theme here has similarities to Fucked Up's David Comes to Life, a concept album I adore). All in all, not a bad record, but not my favourite of his. Certainly still worth a listen.
Format: double 12", gatefold
Tracks: 12
Cost: £12 new
Bought: Spillers
When: 17/04/10
Colour: black
Etching: no
mp3s: download
