She has a heart that will never melt

Final Fantasy a.k.a. Owen Pallett, $20,000 Polaris Prize, ridiculous album title, yada yada yada.

My former manager lent me ...Has a Good Home earlier this year and I never told him how it grew on me in a short time. Who could resist Pallett gently singing, “You can see your house from here, you can see your house from here” in “The CN Tower Belongs to the Dead”? Or screaming, “Please please please!” in the background of the song of the same name?

He Poos Clouds is everything a sophomore album should be: richer sound, fleshed-out arrangements, less whimsy and preciousness, and greater confidence, intensity and expression. Pallett sounds like he didn't set out to write novelty violin-based pop/rock music; he just wrote whatever the heck he felt like. I find it funny that he’s classified as indie pop/rock, because he uses few of the American popular music conventions that other artists cut their teeth on. This is someone who grew up in another country, speaking another language. For instance, his singing makes me think of early 20th century German expressionists such as Schoenberg rather than Iggy Pop. (Now if that doesn’t sell you, then I don’t know what will.)

Seriously, though, according to his page on New Music Canada, his influences include Bartok's string quartets. When I read that, it all fell into place -- the expressionistic singing, the atonal harmonies, the syncopated rhythms borrowed from folk music -- all techniques that modern 20th-century composers like Bartok, Schoenberg and Stravinsky employed. Betcha Pitchfork never said anything about that.

Final Fantasy website (incomplete)
Final Fantasy on NMC
“He Poos Clouds” on YouTube