Domino Records2010
This album is almost 1 year old! I'm reviewing it today!
My friend Ian rated this #2 on his top ten albums of 2010. I'm going to disagree with him and say that other than Superchunk's new album, this album was probably the best thing to happen in 2010.
Up until some night towards the end of January last year, err about a year ago, I had never really heard of Owen Pallett, and just heard of Final Fantasy in passing. I think I may have downloaded a few Final Fantasy albums because someone said they were pretty good, but never really listened to them. Turns out, Final Fantasy is just Owen Pallett, and he was on some radio show that was playing on KCUR...I think it was Studio 360? He played a song off of Heartland- "Lewis Takes Action" and talked about how he used an entire fucking orchestra to record this shit. I was blown away by it. I had to hear more!
Anyways, I went home and got this album and listened to it obsessively for about a month. I fell in love with this album. It's so beautifully crafted, each song fits in perfect sequence. It's like all of those Final Fantasy albums that Owen Pallett recorded were just him fucking around, trying to figure out his sound for this album. Every instrument, every loop, is in exactly the right place on this album. This album has a purpose about it; it feels almost like a complete symphony or some shit, complete with movements and stuff.
It's no wonder this guy writes all of the string arrangements for Arcade Fire and pretty much every other band in Canada. Owen Pallett is a fucking genius. His songwriting abilities make Andrew Bird look like an 8th grader. This album netted him a few awards last year, which is cool, but I feel like it should have won every award. I really hope that when he was on tour with the National (I wanted to see that show, but couldn't) he showed them up. I'm sure he did.
5 out of 5 steering wheels
