Owen - At Home With Owen
 

Okay so I don't know how many of you are familiar with the work of the amazing Mike Kinsella (of American Football/Cap'n Jazz/Joan of Arc/Owls). If you are not acquainted with his work, then you should know his solo project, Owen, has just released a new CD and now would be the time for you to amend it. "At Home With Owen" is beautiful, scathing, uplifting, and depressing all at once. The CD is pretty much entirely acoustic, so this is a definite must for anyone who generally likes acoustic stuff or wants to hear more (Trips, I'm looking at you here). Kinsella's restrained instrumentalism maintains a relaxed atmosphere throughout the album, and his politely quiet, hide-in-the-corner vocals provide a misleading contrast to the general content of the lyrics; a lot of the time, the lyrics are very self-aware, honest and bordering on self-deprecation, which always makes everybody feel good, right? For example:

one of these days I'll make some money
and buy myself those things that I want:
acrylic paints, acoustic guitar strings, a new bicycle seat
for my ride over to your house each night
and one of these days I'll get a real job
one that actually pays
like my dad had

------------------


Another real treat on the album are all the little musical nuances he uses to flesh out the songs. At the end of the opening track, Bad News, there's a really nice, drawn-out coda with pretty little triplets underpinning the whole section. It's a really subtle little addition but it makes the entire section. Gold.

Basically, download or buy this album if you like your acoustic/indie/folk-esque. It is a surprising treat in a field of mediocrity. It upsets me that Fall Out Boy's Infinity on High can top charts but legitimately excellent CDs such as this can fall by the wayside. :(

ANYWAY. Get this album. It rules. That's all I really need to say, now that I've said way more.

:love:

Kinsela and anything and anyone related to Cap'n Jazz is amazing.

I love you,

Get this CD. When I heard it I immediately thought, "man, FakeRazor would dig this". True story. Kinda weirded me out, to be honest, that one of the first places my mind went when I was listening to it was here.

I will probably look for this when I remember to.

Do it. Do it now.

Or come on MSN and I'll send you the first track and then you'll be all over it.

K I am currently downloading.

:love:

Oh shit, I just realized I already had it. I've had it for a long time actually. I have all of Owen's albums, but since this one was "new" I assumed I didn't have it. Amazing though.

Yeah, going to download right...now.

:love: YES, the Kinsella bros are amazing. AP magazine labelled Tim as the Simon Cowell of emo.

A Bird in Hand is probably my fav song off of At Home With Owen, but they are all incredible. Mike's guitar work is really good, as is his drum playing in American Football, Cap'n Jazz, Joan of Arc, etc. I think he's the lead singer of Make Believe, but I could be wrong.

I can't seem to track down the whole American Football album. I have like half of it. Also I can never find anything by Joan of Arc. I have the remainder of the Kinsella projects pretty well covered though.

Yeah, I've never had any luck finding Joan of Arc, either.

I like owen and Joan of arc.