There are many things about the man they call Owen Pallett confounding and fascinating me. It might be the music. It might be him being musically very talented and a string arranger for bands such as Arcade Fire and Pet Shop Boys. It might be him being into Dungeons & Dragons and, obviously, Final Fantasy. It might be that he’s openly gay and that his boyfriend is his manager and that the management company is conveniently called Boyfriend Management. I mean just that last bit sends me flying off my chair by sheer fascination.
It might also be the many strange connections I’m drawing between him and Patrick Wolf.
1. They are both musically talented, multi-instrumental and both prominently play the violin (Wolf plays the viola).
2. They both share that carefully arranged orchestral, baroque, chamber folktronica pop vibe in their music.
3. They’re fairly the same age. Owen born 1979 and Wolf born 1983.
3. Owen Pallett is homosexual. Patrick Wolf is bisexual, wether he wants to be an individualist bitch and disliking giving his sexuality a terminology or not. Has anyone ever given birth to the thought that they’d be an awesome couple? Or can they at least collaborate? I’d think they’d make some pretty awesome music. Owen embracing his ambitious pop side and Patrick learning about the virtue of subtlety.
4. Owen’s boyfriend’s name is also named Patrick. How freaky a coincidence is that?!
Or it might just be his splendid album Heartland sending my brain into loops. It’s sort of a concept album from the perspective of an ”ultra-violent farmer” in a world called Spectrum, opposing his creator Owen Pallett. It’s basically Ys on hallucinogenic drugs. And I love Ys. And I love the feeling of hallucinogenic drugs without having to actually take them and deal with the consequences.
To be more specific it’s the song Lewis Takes His Shirt Off that’s catching my interest. The title itself hints at his queer sides. The song is ever so subtle in its progression with a tinkering electronic base providing the rhythm and string arrangements expanding the soundscape ever so gently but surely not without leaving a lasting impression on the listener. Pallett’s melodies are politely sung but stick like gum in your head just because of that discretion that leaves you wanting more. As the song ends with this cool, rhythmically consistent tapping sound echoing out and down, after the string section has built up to a rush-of-blood-to-the-head crescendo, you’re ready to hit the repeat button to once again experience this mind-boggling episode of the Heartland saga. But all the while you know it’s perhaps mostly because you want to hear that brilliantly poppy melodic and unusually addicting line sung over and over again, ringing inside your head:
I’m never gonna give it you
I’m never gonna give it you
I’m never gonna give it you
I’m never gonna give it you
I’m never gonna give it you
I’m never gonna give it you
Listen to Lewis Takes His Shirt Off on Spotify!
Or watch the youtube video below. After you’ve listened to the song here below I’ll allow you to go see the very confusing music video. It totally takes up all the attention on that crucial, magic first listen of a song. It’s one of the weirdest videos I’ve seen. The song is so ambitious so I don’t know why anyone would want to watch that nonsense video to experience the song. They’re two very different experiences so please, listen to the song and then watch the video.
