Owen Pallett -- In Conflict

i still love Heartland a whole lot but this has the potential to overtake it in my affections.

the live band arrangements are a wholly different beast at times and filled with violence and life and destruction. (soldier's rock, especially.)

OMG I forgot Eno sings on this as well. This is really really good on a first listen (well exept the already released tracks ive already hammered)

London show last night was lotsa fun. Hyped to get the new LP early too :-)

yeah, fantastic gig last night. Could have done with Owen's vocals a tad higher in the mix imo.

So many ILXors last night :D thanks guys for coming!

S/O to the pilled up Spanish brothers in front of me who fist pumped for the entire duration of the gig.

also to the middle aged ladies doing interpretative fan dances near the back, was loving their work :-)

listened with headphones a few times (highly recommended), and currently going through my first blasting through loudspeakers listening.

the title cut is such a jam. the verses are catchier than almost all choruses, and the minimal bass lines are killer throughout

Finally got round to listening to the vinyl version of this (treated myself to the 2xLP last week). It sounds so great. I don't normally pay too much attention to that sort of thing, but I want to play this loud (but don't think my neighbours would appreciate that at this time of night...)

So I had some quick thoughts and all:

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/in-conflict-20140527

as do I! http://www.spin.com/reviews/owen-pallett-in-conflict/

you can tell there was a lot of work done on making this look and sound amazing on the vinyl version - it's truly excellent

"The Passions" is real nice

THIS FUCKING ALBUM

i would like to echo dan's enthusiasm as i finally listened to the record while reading the lyric sheet this afternoon

essentially this album is more devastating than i even initially thought

I can't remember the last time I was so excited to hear an album with the lyric sheet in hand.

not since I heard Discreet Music.

this is great
the only recent album that it kind of reminds me of is these new puritans
just in terms of balancing indie rock songwriting and odd modern classical arrangements and composition
which i mean as a compliment! i love TNP and this is great
but if you guys don't agree i will retract my statement instead of argue

this isn't really chilly though, it's more emotional
TNP is kind of chilly like Talk Talk (in feel)

Just got my vinyl through the post. Domino did well getting it here on the day of release. It looks beautiful and is sounding fantastic. Have only listened to the NPR stream once, wanted to wait until I got my actual copy to hear it again.

the albums i associate most with it so far don't resemble it musically but maybe formally? so i get the tnp comparison. for instance, maybe because owen's been talking about tori a lot, i've been thinking of this record in conjunction with under the pink, this really expansive vision fit into these skewed pop songs. or shiina ringo's karuki samen no kuri hana which is a similar kind of interior pop with gorgeous diversions

shiina ringo comparison is crazily apt, great pick-up

solid nyt review today
i feel like this is the one that dude rides to HIPSTER STATUS and yay

And here's his fancy new site:

http://www.owenpalletteternal.com/

Apparently In Conflict is 50 minutes and 90 seconds long, lol

As I said elsewhere in strict resemblance terms the album I'm reminded of most is Coloma's Finery.

But I really feel Brad's Under The Pink comparison. "Pretty Good Year" totally fits the narrative except it's in second/third person rather than first. Also "The Riverbed" = "Cornflake Girl" / "The Passions" = "Icicle".

I'm only fairly familiar with Amos's work but for me I'm hearing a fair bit of Hounds of Love in here - especially in the way the string and orchestral arrangements meet with the synth-led stuff.

btw not that i necessarily need to compare owen's great, individual record to even more things but imo this year's analogue for this record is meshell ndegeocello's

"The Passions" is real nice

― macklin' rosie (crüt), Tuesday, May 27, 2014 12:05 PM (11 hours ago)

it's such a sad song, isn't it? I was at his Boston show, and he announced it as "a friendly reminder that death is hanging over us" or something to that effect. the lyrics aren't particularly depressing (bittersweet nostalgia + Smiths) but his delivery is so mournful that it's hard not to want to parse it for darker subtexts. it's chilling the way it glides so seamlessly from synth to string section and back again.

I wish one person would step into this thread and trash this album to dispel the appearance of sycophantism. this lovefest is really getting out of hand!

(but I think this album is great so idk)

my considered opinion:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPcLaO4ey4g

haw

it's up on spotify, yay

i mean not yay for owen's wallet i guess but yay nonetheless

Both He Poos Clouds and Heartland made my year-end top 5, though the latter felt like a considerable step up in terms of craft. On first listen, In Conflict doesn't seem significantly more impressive to me, but it's obviously still great.

Can this stupid week (the one that, for me, ends this coming Tuesday) please be over so I can just spend some real time with this record?

after playing "The Riverbed" incessantly I kind of want to go through every other album in my record collection and replace the guitar with violin

feels like it would be most transformative on Ministry-influenced industrial metal

personalized listening: heard "I Am Not Afraid" line as "I haven't had a fuck in years"

but yes seems like a tour de force on first hearing

Gah now I wont not hear it that way, thanks Morbs ;P

http://thequietus.com/articles/15386-owen-pallett-favourite-albums

I went to buy this today at the record shop where I normally get sneered at (shut UP I do not buy that many cut-price I------- albums) and the clerk took it from me and said "Great choice! EXCELLENT album!" and now I'm wondering if Owen bribed them all to say that.

wanna hear that buffy sainte-marie album

and regret not having this album twenty-some years ago, that i might write alarmingly earnest letters to the Artist

i was thinking in the back of my mind that "i am not afraid" maybe had something to do with tg

but that's also my own association with the word "discipline"

Still listening to this album a lot, still think I prefer Heartland but I've lived with that record for four years now and there aren't many things in the world I'd rather listen to.

Will never not get goosebumps at:

"Your light is spent! Your light is spent!" I cried,
As I drove the iron spike into Owen's eyes.
The sun sped cross the plains like that cinematic moment where
Humanity and nature collide.
When you think, "Everything's gonna be all right,"
Just before the hero gets a bullet in his side.

^^lol I wrote almost an exact copy of this post yesterday right down to mentioning that particular verse, but I got distracted and forgot to press submit.

But yeah agreed - I said AOTY upthread and meant it, but I'm not sure if this is better than Heartland. idk I guess I prefer the Final Fantasy side more?

Heartland is an all-time favourite for me. So far, I have not really been able to connect with this in the same way, as far as my personal taste goes. I don't dislike it by any stretch: hooks get in my head; the skills are undeniable. Maybe it's just a matter of time. The three songs that were released ahead of time are still my favourites.

Very hard to compare them as I've listened to Heartland a lot since it came out and have only played In Conflict maybe five times now. My first impressions are there is nothing on In Conflict that I love as much as Lewis Takes Off His Shirt and Tryst With Mephistopheles but overall it's more consistently enjoyable album. Love that he's totally fulfilling all that promise that he showed on the Final Fantasy albums. They're both really good albums but what he's done since has been such a huge leap in, well everything really.

Very excited that he's coming to Minnesota in September. Haven't seen him since around He Poos Clouds.