Do you like Owen Pallett? I like Owen Pallett!
June 8, 2016 12:52 PM Subscribe
Having established that we both like Owen Pallett, please tell me what else you like that seems Owen Pallett-esque.
Okay, so here are the reasons I like Owen Pallett, not especially in order of importance:
1. Violin and looping and soaring and general cinematic qualities.
2. Allusive lyrics, lyrics that have a puzzle quality. But not pointlessly puzzling - like, we're not just rabbiting on in a surreally Robyn Hitchcock way. Nor are they just disguised love songs.
3. Music from a queer standpoint. This has to do, I think, with the lack of very blah love songs - not that there are no very blah queer love songs out there, but compare with old clever-clogs Elvis Costello, for instance, or Leonard Cohen. (Not to run down those two - I listen to both all the time. But even for straight dudes their outlook on the world is really straight, so to speak.)
4. Um, Owen Pallett's singing voice? In that it's not super earthy/embodied sounding, maybe? And not particularly deep? Like, he's the opposite-day Leonard Cohen?
5. A certain lonely and obsessive quality.
Seriously, how can you not admire the lyric "sing about a poetess, hyacinth around her feet"?
Anyway. Recommend me some music based on these specifications, mefites! Please recommend specific songs if possible.
Okay, so here are the reasons I like Owen Pallett, not especially in order of importance:
1. Violin and looping and soaring and general cinematic qualities.
2. Allusive lyrics, lyrics that have a puzzle quality. But not pointlessly puzzling - like, we're not just rabbiting on in a surreally Robyn Hitchcock way. Nor are they just disguised love songs.
3. Music from a queer standpoint. This has to do, I think, with the lack of very blah love songs - not that there are no very blah queer love songs out there, but compare with old clever-clogs Elvis Costello, for instance, or Leonard Cohen. (Not to run down those two - I listen to both all the time. But even for straight dudes their outlook on the world is really straight, so to speak.)
4. Um, Owen Pallett's singing voice? In that it's not super earthy/embodied sounding, maybe? And not particularly deep? Like, he's the opposite-day Leonard Cohen?
5. A certain lonely and obsessive quality.
Seriously, how can you not admire the lyric "sing about a poetess, hyacinth around her feet"?
Anyway. Recommend me some music based on these specifications, mefites! Please recommend specific songs if possible.
You should check out Cloud Cult, which definitely hits points #1, #2, and #4 (and, to a lesser extent, #5). For example, Take Your Medicine or No Hell.
posted by Johnny Assay at 1:05 PM on June 8, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Johnny Assay at 1:05 PM on June 8, 2016 [1 favorite]
Also, check out Patrick Watson. Examples: Wooden Arms, Lighthouse.
posted by Johnny Assay at 1:17 PM on June 8, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by Johnny Assay at 1:17 PM on June 8, 2016 [2 favorites]
Antony and the Johnsons/Anohni?
The Hidden Cameras?
The Burning Hell?
Rufus Wainwright?
PATRICK WOLF
posted by Miss T.Horn at 1:27 PM on June 8, 2016 [1 favorite]
The Hidden Cameras?
The Burning Hell?
Rufus Wainwright?
PATRICK WOLF
posted by Miss T.Horn at 1:27 PM on June 8, 2016 [1 favorite]
Perfume Genius?
posted by SoftRain at 1:39 PM on June 8, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by SoftRain at 1:39 PM on June 8, 2016 [1 favorite]
Joanna Newsom
Joanna Newsom
Joanna Newsom
(Start with Ys)
posted by mymbleth at 2:06 PM on June 8, 2016 [3 favorites]
Joanna Newsom
Joanna Newsom
(Start with Ys)
posted by mymbleth at 2:06 PM on June 8, 2016 [3 favorites]
You'd find a lot to like in Shugo Tokumaru. He's very playful, but his compositional qualities can often be quite wondrous.
posted by a good beginning at 2:15 PM on June 8, 2016
posted by a good beginning at 2:15 PM on June 8, 2016
Seconding Andrew Bird and Patrick Watson.
Tilbury is an airy, looping, cinematic but decidedly non-twee Icelandic band: try Tenderloin or Slow Motion Fighter.
Woodpigeon is a Winnipeg collective that is chamber pop-ish without being self-indulgent. Try An Entanglement of Weeds or For Paolo.
From Montreal, there's Adam and the Amethysts: this Dreaming mix is Pallett-ish.
posted by maudlin at 6:57 PM on June 8, 2016 [1 favorite]
Tilbury is an airy, looping, cinematic but decidedly non-twee Icelandic band: try Tenderloin or Slow Motion Fighter.
Woodpigeon is a Winnipeg collective that is chamber pop-ish without being self-indulgent. Try An Entanglement of Weeds or For Paolo.
From Montreal, there's Adam and the Amethysts: this Dreaming mix is Pallett-ish.
posted by maudlin at 6:57 PM on June 8, 2016 [1 favorite]
Arthur Russel?
posted by kaspen at 8:54 PM on June 8, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by kaspen at 8:54 PM on June 8, 2016 [3 favorites]
100% Antony and the Johnsons/Anohni
Specifically I am a Bird Now, which I think he did string arrangements and played on.
If I'm wrong about that whatever, because it fits most of your criteria and is GORGEOUS and THE BEST and if you haven't you need to hear it.
posted by kittensofthenight at 10:48 PM on June 8, 2016
Specifically I am a Bird Now, which I think he did string arrangements and played on.
If I'm wrong about that whatever, because it fits most of your criteria and is GORGEOUS and THE BEST and if you haven't you need to hear it.
posted by kittensofthenight at 10:48 PM on June 8, 2016
Sorry but how has this thread got this far down without a mention of John Grant
posted by greenish at 2:53 AM on June 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by greenish at 2:53 AM on June 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
Raining Pleasure by the Triffids?
Fox Confessor Brings the Flood by Neko Case?
posted by trotzdem_kunst at 5:01 AM on June 9, 2016
Fox Confessor Brings the Flood by Neko Case?
posted by trotzdem_kunst at 5:01 AM on June 9, 2016
Owen Pallett once did a cover of Paris 1919 by John Cale. If you wanna go back to the original source, the grumpy VU violist John Cale is ticking most of the requirements specified above.
posted by ovvl at 7:08 PM on June 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by ovvl at 7:08 PM on June 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by btfreek at 1:01 PM on June 8, 2016 [5 favorites]