(2023) Owen Pallett - The Two EPs (Deluxe Edition)

Review:
A frequent collaborator of many Canadian music scene staples (Arcade Fire, the Hidden Cameras), Owen Pallett served as the violinist in local Toronto bands as they were coming up. The artist built a reputation based on virtuosic ensemble performances before launching Final Fantasy, the looped-violin solo project to which Has a Good Home is an introduction. For sophomore follow-up He Poos Clouds — based on the Dungeons & Dragons School of Magic — the project expanded to include a string quartet. The first EP, Spectrum, 14th Century, originally released in 2008, is a “prequel” to Pallett’s celebrated album Heartland (2010), set in the same fictional world of Spectrum. “When I realized Heartland was going to be a ‘fantasy’ album, I imagined that the Spectrum EP would serve as a map of the countryside, as one would find in the first pages of a fantasy novel,” Pallett said in a press release. The second EP, Plays to Please, also released in 2008, is Pallett’s tribute to Van Dyke Parks’ arrangement style, and is their first foray into full orchestral production. In the spirit of Nilsson Plays Newman, it is a collection of interpretations of the works of songwriter Alex Lukashevsky. — owenpallett.bandcamp.com

Track List:
Disc 1 - The Two EPs [Spectrum, 14th Century]
01 - Oh Spectrum
02 - Blue Imelda
03 - The Butcher
04 - Cockatrice
05 - The Ballad of No-Face
06 - Horsetail Feathers
07 - Ultimatum
08 - Moodring Band
09 - I Saved a Junky Once
10 - Nun or a Bawd
11 - Crush-Love-Crush

Disc 2 - The Two EPs [Plays to Please]
01 - Hard to Explain
02 - Joys
03 - Contra O Capitalismo


Media Report:
Genre: art pop, chamber pop
Country: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits
Compression mode: Lossless
Writing library: libFLAC 1.2.1 (UTC 2007-09-17)


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