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blog post Wrath of Khanna's Album of the Week: Heartland by Owen Pallett

posted by Vish Khanna on Jan 20, 2010

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Good morning everyone. I hope all is well. My Album of the Week is by our X3 Artist of the Month. This is a coincidence; I don't need any boss on me to declare this week's selection to be the best record of 2010. It's Heartland by Owen Pallett and the man himself will be on the show today to discuss it with me.

First off, the rumours are true: the Final Fantasy moniker is dead and Owen is now presenting his new material under his own name. A lot of people are using this development as a means of discussing how Heartland is a bold departure for Owen. Y'know, usually that kind of thing is just noise but, I have to say, I agree. Like a lot of people, I'm often left awestruck by Owen's live show but I've never connected with his records they way I have with Heartland. And, even though it most certainly wasn't, the Final Fantasy-to-Owen Pallett transition does seem purposeful; it literally seems as though he's gone from playing games to getting down to the real business of being the whimsical, musical sophisticate he is. Heartland is the bloodiest pop there is; it bubbles and bursts with orchestral grace and synthesized grandeur. And it's about a farmer named Lewis. Just mind blowing...

Stay tuned for my conversation with Owen Pallett about his new record Heartland.

Have you heard this incredible new record by Owen Pallett? What do you make of what you've heard so far? Old or new, Canadian or otherwise, what is your album of the week?

posted by Vish Khanna on Jan 20, 2010

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#1 posted by
MikeV
on Jan 20, 2010

Good morning Vish!

I have indeed listened to Heartland, and have been memorized by it for the last week since Mr. Craig Norris first played the entire album last week. Ever since I can't get enough of it. I have to admit I wasn't a big listener of his material before this, not that I disliked it but rather he was just one of those artists that I never got around to. It happens.

Anyways, this album has engaged my imagination more than any album I can think of in a long time. It's simply epic.

#2 posted by
MikeV
on Jan 20, 2010

I guess it's obvious Heartland is my album of the week to.

#3 posted by
QuitThisScene
on Jan 20, 2010

I haven't listened to Heartland yet, but I did see Owen open for the Mountaingoats in November, and that whole show was pretty amazing.

#4 posted by
TheRadioHead
on Jan 20, 2010

I know there are people reading this that have grown very weary of my complaining about the current state of popular music.

That it has not progressed for 2 decades, that it is people on guitars, drums and bass playing and singing nice songs, as has been done for 40 years.

I am mystified by a generation of musicians and fans alike that are content with revisiting the past, rather than carving a place in culture and history of their own.

Owen Pallett gives me hope.

#5 posted by
Vish Khanna
on Jan 20, 2010

Excellent! I knew I wouldn't be alone on this one...

#6 posted by
MikeV
on Jan 20, 2010

Next you will be able to smell the other person.

#7 posted by
suckamc
on Jan 20, 2010

I missed all but the last two songs on Craig's show, then I didn't get the album for my birthday like I was kind of hoping I would...

I am sufferning from Not Even Knowing What I'm Missingitis!

#8 posted by
MikeV
on Jan 20, 2010

I think Heartland would have complimented your former mustache very well.

#9 posted by
Vish Khanna
on Jan 20, 2010

Yes, Mike is right. You might be Lewis.

#10 posted by
suckamc
on Jan 20, 2010

I have no proof on hand, but it's true!

Wait, they have a website!

#11 posted by
suckamc
on Jan 20, 2010

I really want to listen to this album that I might be staring in!

#12 posted by
MikeV
on Jan 20, 2010

They might have changed their name but they appear to have not yet let go of the previous year. All the blog dates are 2009 ones.

#13 posted by
tb3
on Jan 20, 2010

Not that I don't love this album and Owen… But you don't hear him visiting classical and theatrical music? In his own way, Owen is revisiting an older, and much more repeated past.

Rock & Roll has been here how many years? And how long for Classical?

Saying that music hasn't progressed in the last two decades is a pretty bold statement, I'd love to see you substantiate. Especially given what's happened musically in the last twenty years.

#14 posted by
Vish Khanna
on Jan 20, 2010

I agree with tb3. Music is always changing and advancing...

#15 posted by
TheRadioHead
on Jan 20, 2010

There are subcultures in music that are advancing, for sure. Just look at what is coming out of the music schools, and at new music festivals.

But that is not what 80% of the population is looking for. The welcome that Heartland is being given by music media makes me optimiistic that there is more of a willingness to be open to other than rock instrumentation.

love to chat more, but i gotta split.

#16 posted by
helenelizabeth
on Jan 20, 2010

Heartland is a brilliant album. You can discover a new layer to each track time you press play. It deserves a focused listener and a quality listening device.

#17 posted by
daa1982
on Jan 20, 2010

I think it can be a matter of opinion, or perhaps more as a matter of what you're exposed to. If you grew up in a town that only had a few radio stations that played the same kind of music you would definately get the impression things can be pretty bland out there.

I used to think that when I was younger, then got out of the small town I was in, checked out other radio stations, found music that was new to me, then the Internet was a big help and R3 delivers a whole other world I couldn't have dreamed existed.

#18 posted by
TheRadioHead
on Jan 20, 2010

So write this date on the calendar.

I have a 40 years perspective on popular music, because I have been listening since my parents got me out of bed to watch The Beatles on Ed Sullivan, a perspective not many people here have.

I am tired of it. Time to move most of it along.

#19 posted by
Vish Khanna
on Jan 20, 2010

Well, I guess that settles that!

#20 posted by
daa1982
on Jan 20, 2010

Didn't Nixon use that Statement in a debate against JFK?

I don't think that helped him out any.

#21 posted by
MikeV
on Jan 20, 2010

No Nixon said he was moldier than JFK.

#22 posted by
daa1982
on Jan 20, 2010

Ah okay. Well...atleast he was being honest about it.

#23 posted by
dawn.h
on Jan 20, 2010

My first experience with Mr Fantasy was a live show but it was at a Brampton indie arts festival so in a theatre and surrounded by crazy artiness. I believe I called him a god. Imagine my surprise when I did connect to songs as much as a live show.

Now I've been listening to Heartland only in the car on the way to work and am a song or two short of the whole album but I've only had much interest in song 7. I know that because each song I was like 'hmm. song 2. enh.' until song 7. I'm not done giving it a go but I'm not connecting to the album at all.

#24 posted by
dawn.h
on Jan 20, 2010

See. But I really like this Lewis Takes Action song. Maybe it's the album as a chunk I'm not taking to. Hmm.

#25 posted by
Redfreetrog
on Jan 20, 2010

Coffe, and radio 3 were needed:

Before coffee and radio 3: Arrrrgh!

After coffee and radio 3: Ooooohhh!

I logged in to radio 3 this morning to get the tunes flowing, then opened a new tab to check out what music was coming to the Blacksheep Inn, only to find out that Final Fantasy wasn't playing on the night my husband had booked for us (hence the Arrrrgh!), but, with an open mind I went back to radio 3 to see if I could find out more about Owen Pallett who was taking the place of Final Fantasy. After a sip of coffee and taking a minute to read the article staring me in the face this morning, I'm back to good and anxiously awaiting the show! (that's where the Ooooohhh! comes in). :)

#26 posted by
mattyjames2001
on Jan 20, 2010

Goooooood morning Vish-etnam!

I haven't really listened to Heartland yet. It's being shipped right now, and I have a good feeling it should be here by... next week. Maybe I'm just an old soul, but I don't really wanna hear it anywhere but my record player.

My album of the week this week, is Spoon - Transference.

#27 posted by
tb3
on Jan 20, 2010

Years don't matter.

You've been listening to pop music for 40 years. Admittedly you lost around 10 of those as a parent when you didn't have time.

I turn 40 in a couple of years. I remember at the tender age of 10ish on a Griswald-esq family vacation to Disney listening to Cheap Trick Live at Budokan on the car 8-Track. So that would give me 30 years of personal perspective.

But my oldest brother is 6 years my elder, the next oldest has 3 years on me. And my youngest brother is 6 years younger than me. So my breadth of pop culture spans 12 years of perspective at any pin point on the time line.

It afforded me of getting into Kiss long before any of my friends did. And out of them long before everyone else my age.

How long you've listened to music doesn't give you license to see something that we don't. Or even a unique perspective. Some people spend 40 years listening to Kenny Rogers.

Owen studied classical music right? I suppose his pop music perspective outreaches everyone in here combined. And yet he is 8 years to the day younger than me. A kid as far as I am concerned.

Popular anything is what has the least definition and uniqueness so that appeals to the largest audience and can be consumed easily. While you thumb point at what is popular music epidemic of staleness today, I ask you to think what Miles Davis and his followers thought when he came onto the scene? Or Beethoven for that matter?

Vanillification and Comidification are hardly problems unique to today.

You insist that anything that falls prey to the traditional tools of rock: guitar, bass, drum are slaves to convention and bring nothing new to the table. And more broad and generalized is that is that we have been stuck in this rut for the two decades.

The classical rock revival right now, in my opinion is a response to the early 2K deluge we had of electronic music that was HUGE thanks to the popularity of that Trainspotting song (Underworld). And raves. Dance mix after dance mix made by adding thump thump thump.

And really what Owen is doing… the looping which was paramount to the electronica rave front, but using real instruments to create those loops is kind of 'the thing' right now — I call it Analog DJs: See Joseph Arthur, Timbre Timber, Jean-Paul De Roover, etc.

I absolutely agree that Owen's album gives us a lot of reason to be excited about music. But I would add that, in the respect to all the artists here on Radio3, there are TONS more examples. And some even use classical conventions to do so.

As for what's broadly popular on more commercial radio, I see as much value as using them an example of musical creativity, as I do adding a chapter to a modern art text book on the artists who create the canvases you see in an Holiday Inn Select.

#28 posted by
mattyjames2001
on Jan 20, 2010

Great post.

I think just to pigeon-hole Owen as the only "exciting" new artist is a bit shallow, ya know? I'd argue that there's way more different music being made now than at any other point in recorded history. Especially with all the technology that we have now. Remixes of songs are actually worth listening to! And thanks to sampling, we are getting crazy versions of songs that just wouldn't normally be humanly possible. I'm down for that. Why not experience new things?

And as far years = wisdom.... I really don't buy into that. I know a lot of people that have a lot more years on me, growing up on the Beatles or whatever, and they are by no means a music expert. Even music experts aren't music experts these days. There's so much new material coming out all the time now, I highly doubt anyone can keep up. Hell, even Pitchfork misses some major Canadian releases from time to time.

#29 posted by
TheRadioHead
on Jan 20, 2010

As I said, it has to do with perspective.

The perspective of listening for a long time and having heard the same thing over and over. As compared to it being a new discovery for people listening for a shorter period of time.

But as I also said, it concerns me most that musicians lack the desire to really revolutionize, which is what the foundation of rock truly was.

#30 posted by
TheRadioHead
on Jan 21, 2010

and your unwillingness to be open to my perspective.

I however did give some consideration to your perspective. I came to the realization that you are someone that does not value change. This is evident in your seeing the same performer repeatedly on the same tour, and how often you have seen other shows, like Dylan.

You like repetition, so even a little change would be enough to satisfy you.

Rock music has not evolved much since The Beatles first took that Ed Sullivan stage, the majority of it is still guys with drums and guitars singing nice songs, as it was 40 years ago. All you need do is look at R3's rotation.

The Beatles changed everything about music, production, social moirs, fashion, sex and drugs, involvement in politics. Rock musicians now admire and idolize The Beatles, but do little to continue their values.

#31 posted by
tb3
on Jan 21, 2010

And how long has classical been running with the orchestra format?

#32 posted by
tb3
on Jan 21, 2010

People have been painting with a brush, oils and a canvas for quite some time… yet painting is hardly over.

It's one thing to admonish / dismiss a movement because it doesn't resonate with you personally. But to decide and proclaim music itself is over for the rest of us sort of assumes that we're bored with someone using oil on a brush, applied to a canvas in the same way you are.

But more importantly are paying no attention to how that particular artist has used those tools to communicate their ideas, in their chose artistic format.

Content is very different than the tools used to transmit it. While things sound and look the same, it still can contain nuances specific to that artist and that song.

Is every jazz song the same?

To someone who doesn't like jazz it is.

So… perhaps that's what you see with jazz?

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