owen pallett - island (2020)

god i cant wait to listen

Oh it is stunning. Paragon of Order and A Bloody Morning really hit me on the first listen, but it’s all so immediate tbh. The sequencing, the arrangements, everything is really effective at making you visualise the film of it.

"paragon of order," jesus

Thanks for the kind words, you guys, I really appreciate it :')

It's wonderful

Sound of the Engines hits me hard.

I am a wound unhealing.

the sequencing is so good

listening now. love how gradually this is building

godkiller's alive!

I thought they were fucked into space

just cracking it, "Transformer" is lovely.

Are there loads of motific references to <i>Heartland</i> in the orchestral arrangements? I can't actually put my finger on them, but it <i>feels</i> like there are.

ugh square brackets

I’m just keeping up with all the albums released this week but I can safely say this one and Moodymann might be the best ones imho. The long hiatus was worth it.

Are there loads of motific references to <i>Heartland</i> in the orchestral arrangements? I can't actually put my finger on them, but it <i>feels</i> like there are.

― in twelve parts (lamonti),

I haven’t read any interviews or reviews yet so I don’t know if it’s on purpose but every movement here seems to reference his past albums in some way? Movement three would be the Spectrum - Heartland era. The overall feeling I get is that every movement represents a progressive evolution in Owen’s sound. Like a career revision.

I might be off but that was my first impression.

another day of listening to this a lot and it's absolutely my favourite thing he's ever done

me too

also i do like that band versions of two songs are thrown on the end as a nice extra but i entirely agree that the album versions are a much better fit (and i prefer them in isolation too, otherworldly strings 4eva)

i really adore the alternate "fire-mare" but it wouldn't have worked as well on the album for the obvious reasons. the alternate "paragon of order" isn't bad but it's missing that melody that comes in at about 3:44 which is my favourite thing on the album version

I'm they/them these days <3

A few people have been mentioning movements and I didn't get it, until I blinked and looked at the track listing and was like "oh the segues look like the beginnings of movements" lol. The album is divided in four but the instrumental segues are not the dividers, the sides are. A: 1-5, B: 6-9, C: 10-13, D: 14-15

The alt versions were originally to fill the fourth side-- I cut three songs pretty early on but hadn't figured out how to keep the album a double. I got really attached to the alt versions in the sequence, it works, it sounds to my ears like "In Darkness" is the final scene and the alt versions are the closing credits

ah were those cut songs from when you were talking about it as being ~70 minutes long? the alt versions do work really well at the end like that, which is rare for those sort of bonus tracks

side C is an absolute hell of a side. i mean they all are. but that one my god

Yeah, it was a full 74 minutes. I finished that version in MIDI form in February 2017, circulated to friends, got mixed-positive feedback ("it's great but the demos are better") and so in 10 days I cut it down to 50 minutes and integrated the demo ideas. ("Fucked" for example, didn't have guitar on the MIDI version, it was more like the video from 2015.) Two of those cut songs have been deleted. One of them ("Vengeance") was originally gonna need a choir and I messaged DJP about it! But the songs didn't fit, they've been deleted. The other one ("Oh Bishop") is gonna be released somehow at some point but I'm basically taking Greg's drum parts on it and starting from scratch

i recall you telling me about Oh Bishop! send it to an ILM compilation lol

the overlapping vocal melodies on "fire-mare," ahhhhhhhh

i love this record

couldn't tell you whether i love heartland, in conflict, or this more, prob depends on the day

fire-mare may have surpassed oh heartland up yours as my fav op song

I'm in love with this record. Must have played it eight times yesterday and today, and it unfolds and shares something of its secret every time. It's stunning, and so intimate. I'd hate to use the word 'subdued', because there's fire in the belly of this record, but it creeps up on you way more than that it sets you alight.

I think both 'versions' work really well on the record actually, like encores of two very important pieces of the record. 0P gone done it again, damn. <3

I just began listening to this and the ice cream truck rolled down my street with its sorta broken jingle playing and I wasn't sure it wasn't part of the recording.

as i listen to this i realize how much of the last 10 years i have spent trying to sing like owen

polar vortex is in fuckin 9/8 time and its so pretty

Just saw "Greg's drum parts" and excitedly googled to confirm that that's Greg Fox (whose LP release I'm really looking forward to next month). Hope that unreleased song sees the light of day!

... I still need to listen to the new album. Gonna switch off Merle Haggard after this song and do that :)

I’m still sad that collaboration didn’t work out but the album is incredible. Congrats, fgti

i cannot swim in a certain slant of light

I'm afraid this joins the list of "gorgeous albums that build huge lyrical/sonic worlds almost entirely out of hyper-insular subject matter" which I find a weirdly alienating (possible) trend. I recognize this is My Fault

The piano in the beginning of Saints drives me wild in the best way

and the piano in Polar Vortex, which is so so pretty

Interview here with Q in Canada
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-DwLAn2EWI

And a performance of Polar Vortex
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGWuMbNVCoM

In a EAC#G#AE (?) tuning which feels kinda Joni, though not sure if that's one she's actually used.

this is great owen. You got skinny dude!

https://pasteboard.co/6eec9ba7-0a79-484f-808e-1d63a9bb3dbc
The imagery is very fitting for "A Bloody Morning" and it kind of encompasses the whole album. I like when images/music perfectly encapsulate a strange feeling. I'm not listening to the lyrics that much as I play this album on youtube. I don't need them to understand the album's undertones.

https://i.imgur.com/VZJcC6h.jpg

what's up with this nerd and his --> songs, eh? EH!?!!

Philip Glass calls them "knee plays" in Einstein and I like the idea of it, not songs but transitions. Early days, I wanted all the segues to able to be independently sequenced into their own continuous track... the "→" on the first album segues into the "→" on the second album. But that was over-shooting, like, I'm aiming for "immersive", not solipsistic, so I gave that idea up

<3

my fav knee play: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PL9Rjn7EiRw

Never heard of a knee play before, and just dove into Einstein on the Beach for the first time. This is so far removed from anything I've ever listened to before, but I like it so much. I feel like I'm listening to something wonky--like there's a depth I'm not equipped to access, but I'm still finding myself affected by it. I'm sure there's a Philip Glass thread already, so I'll probably head over there for more recommendations.

Took a couple days off from Island after spending a lot of time with it, but returning now to listen again with fresh ears. Something I want to start considering while listening to all the Spectrum-related material is what snippets we can gather about denizens other than Lewis--what was their relationship to Owen? What can we learn by thinking about them (or their relative absence in the broader narrative)? It's possible the thread doesn't lead anywhere that deep, but it will be a fun exercise nonetheless.

Not as much talk about this album here as I expected. I can only assume I'm not the only one fully engulfed in its stark, naked glory. I tread carefully and save playing it for moments when I can be all ears, and alone, listening to it. Any description I try and give will be an embarrassment, but it awakens something almost primal within me, something deeply personal. It has an insanely powerful effect on me - it's almost too much. At the best and worst of times 'Island' just destroys me in the best and worst possible way.

This album was kind of saving me last week when I was really struggling. It's hard to articulate just how much these songs move me.

Hoping there's a vinyl announcement soon.

Kind of listening to it sparingly because it's such an imposing record. A Bloody Morning is such a monstrously powerful piece of music. It hits as hard as The Riverbed.

Very happy to be able to pick Islands up on vinyl. It's sounding glorious this afternoon.

"the box" when

xpost to myself that obviously should be just Island. I was getting XX confusion.

the music in On the Count of Three is so good, didn't realize til the credits that it's an OP score

I heard a tiny instrumental snippet in a NPR bumper (aka 'button') and spent a couple minutes trying to figure out where it came from. After determining the music was from this album I relistened to all of it again. It's as brilliant as I remembered it being -- but now all the songs are stuck in my head 24/7, causing every thought and feeling to be filtered through meloncholia. Sleeping is also rather difficult.

But damn songs like Transformer and The Sound Of The Engines...

yeah, this is their best, i firmly believe. if they're fine with being ranked, lol

they should stop working on bad movies and do another album!!!!!!!

Wonderful concert tonight, my first time seeing them live in over 14 (! fuck !) years. Old faves aside, the tracks from Island really do shine live, "Fire-Mare" especially, brought me to tears!