Kelly Lee Owens (2017)

i had thought about starting this thread. thanks ross, you were faster. great stuff, love her voice and the different electronic and/or rhythmic flavours coming with it. very atmospheric music. reminds me a little of julia holter, who tends more towards classic songwriting. this is lighter, less pensive. something i always love about musicians, she has her own sound which definitely has a dreamy quality.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzEaFeIwbuk

"throwing lines" is my favorite upon first listen. there are some truly gorgeous moments on this record.

So happy to read this discussion. Kelly Lee IRRC is from the same scene as Braids and Purity Ring, so some of these tracks which are older ("Lucid") do have that kind of feel. But I think she's still unique in her sensibility

otm, it's about time music journalists focused on dream pop and sublime minimal techno

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UkpsMXR5lA

I mean this was designed for me

^ so good

So glad somebody started a thread on this; the record is sensational.

"S.O." is maybe my favorite album open of the year so far, and that stretch between "Lucid" and "Keep Walking" (i.e. the bulk of the album, I guess) is just fantastic.

Only track I'm really not feeling is "Arthur," and it's placed in such a position of prominence (artists tend to place their best/favorite track second on an album) that I feel like I'm missing something.

Here's a total gem not on the album, btw:

https://kellyleeowens.bandcamp.com/track/1-of-3

^ Love that track, too bad it's not on the album :)

Correction about a previous post upthread: Kelly was never part of the same scene as Purity Ring or Braids, she's british. It just seems she was making music back in the day that fell in with those flavours.

This album is awesome

...this is my favorite record of the year, and I don't see anything topping it. Yep.

Love this album so much. It's like the dreamiest moments of the Hannah Peel album but as a sustained vibe.

this is really great

had assumed "kelly lee owens" was a new modern country singer

Haha so did I initially

This is my new bedtime album

My current AOTY too. Wish I could describe its appeal better; I have a hard time selling it to people who haven't heard it

Grimes if she had leaned into (rather than away from) the SAW 85-92 resemblances after Visions?

that's an appealing description tim but so far i'm underwhelmed

i found a sealed copy of this on vinyl for like six bucks.

insane deal nomar :)

"Lucid" stands as a fine mission statement for this album, I think. It's essentially a psychedelic/dream pop album with forays into minimal techno/house. It's not as laser focused on the dancefloor as the prior EP was, and all the better for it. Perhaps this divides some people on the record, as it's in between?

probably! i feel like i should be into this because of the techno thing but i don't much care for dream pop

Hi late great - maybe check out the EP then? :-)

which one ross? i see three on discogs

i've heard oleic, that was more my speed for sure

CBM is a jam

Oleic yeah

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b1/Oleic-acid-based-on-xtal-1997-2D-skeletal.png/1200px-Oleic-acid-based-on-xtal-1997-2D-skeletal.png

Grimes if she had leaned into (rather than away from) the SAW 85-92 resemblances after Visions?

Oleic-acid-based-on-xtal-1997-2D-skeletal.png

hmmm

The colours the beauty the motion
The colours the beauty the motion
The colours the beauty the motion
The colours the beauty the motion

I really like this album a lot but I also think its a little underwhelming in spots. It relies on a very limited palette of sounds and it could do with a little bit more colour. "Lucid" and "CBM" are great moments but I'm not sure she quite gets the dynamics of dance euphoria - "Bird" in particular feels like it's pushing for some kind of rush but it just feels unfinished.

I've seen her post a few mixes where its clear she adores Tiga, and her vocals are all over the Daniel Avery album - I get the impression she likes that kind of sparse, lumpy, analogue techno a lot. I'd love to hear her apply this dream-pop ethereality to more maximalist influences.

good post boxedjoy.

I find it interesting she mentioned sound as a therapeutic vehicle in the pitchfork interview. The textures on this one do feel pretty healing, like the side-chained breathing on "Arthur" and its wobbling bass. The Oleic EP was more in one vein and in some ways I find it more hypnotizing and its sonic limits work more for me.

This LP is okay.

Ross have you ever heard this? It's a little more club-functional than this album but it's basically what I kinda hoped moments on this album would coalesce into resembling.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfoiK__gOK4

Love KiNK.

good track

Bits of this album really remind me of that Pluramon album that had Julee Cruise on it. I like it better than that though.

^ oooh, love that album. If Time Was On My Side rules

Still my favorite album of the year. The fakeout on "Bird"—the lush intro, then the abrupt pivot when the bass kicks in—is such a glorious trick. It's such a minimalist album, yet she's hidden Easter eggs all over it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tB1MVSoKKw

NEW ALBUM INNER SONG
COMING MAY 1ST 2020
http://kellyleeowens.lnk.to/innersong

ooooh, john cale guests

Yaaaaaa

"Melt!" is fun

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kW0vbVEIXE

new one "On" is really good:

https://youtu.be/53EWchMsij8

New album is *chef’s kiss*

Yeah great album! Was not expecting a Radiohead cover in there and it's actually surprisingly decent. 'Flow' reminds me of another song too... aphex twin maybe?

It's very natural sequel to her debut but you can tell how much she has grown as an artist from one album to another. She doesn't sound constrained about working with loops at all.

highlights on first listen: on, night, flow.

Wait, what? I need to spend more time on Spotify because this was an artist that Spotify Hipster Boyfriend was really very seriously "you *need* to hear this!!!" about, until I loved the first album. I feel remiss in not being on Spotify as much, to realise there is a new one and if it's got RH and AFX references I should be all over that!

LOL, I just looked at my Spotify Hipster Boyfriend Release Radar and yes, he's all "COME ON THERE'S A NEW KELLY LEE OWENS ALBUM AND ALSO DID YOU KNOW AVALON EMERSON HAS A NEW TRACK COME ON COME ON GO LISTEN GO GO GO!" and now I feel bad for not paying attention.

30 seconds into Melt! and I'm like "aw, yeah, this is what I wanted!" - then realise that it was a single and I had listened to it quite a bit and faved it when it was still a preview.

The mixture of extremely hard/minimal beats and very soft, cut up and mixed about girly vocals reminds me of Nost-era Ellen Allien in a strange but exciting way?

Really love this!

The one with John Cale comes *very* close to turning into Disintegration-era The Cure right before he switches to Welsh, no? At any rate, they should do a full-length collaboration; their voices would sound nice together on the same track

wow "Wake-Up" is a gorgeous closer

Was going to say how much this remimds me of Pluramon and then I saw I said the exact same thing about the last one. Sounds like a stronger album on first pass though, some really gorgeous moments

Just finished a first run through the new one, really liked it.

It's lovely.

Been bingeing this all weekend, it's great. I love the mixture of instrumental and vocal tracks, and the John Cale track works well.

so good

Melt!

new album is great

Never heard of her until she showed up on my FB feed the other day doing a live set on something called Hör, as in German for hear or listen. I’m a new fan.

Again parts of this are really nice and delicate but there are times I find myself wishing it would ramp up a little more. "Jeanette" is wonderful, reminds me of those Oni Ayhun singles

I liked her debut, but this one is just wonderful. Echoes of Dubnobasswithmyheadman here and there, or so it seems to me.

hadn't spinned this yet for some reason and felt very dumb about 30 seconds into "arpeggi" that i waited for so long lol

yeah you know pretty much immediately what you're gonna get and that it's gonna be really good

i love the sequencing. the cooldown tracks arrive just when they're supposed to

Inner Song is beautiful. Had it on repeat the whole afternoon.

New album out tomorrow with more of an ambient sound apparently

https://kellyleeowens.bandcamp.com/album/lp-8

Cool, thanks!

Intrigued. She’s been consistently good so far.

not sure what i think of this new one yet but it is definitely a curveball. it's ambient, but not a very cuddly kind of ambient

Quite surprised at how industrial the first and last tracks are. Reminded of Jenny Hval.

coproduced by one of Hval's producers

I like this. After some of what I had read about it, I thought it might be more abrasive, but I guess those comments are just in relation to her earlier work. It’s not an “easy” listen I guess, but there’s plenty to draw you in.