Owen Pallett/Final Fantasy - "He Poos Clouds"

[darquegk]

Posted: 7/20/16 at 3:07pm

A few weeks ago I discovered this bizarre and fascinating album. I knew the name Owen Pallett for his soundtrack work and association with Arcade Fire, but "He Poos Clouds" was published solely under his former pen name, Final Fantasy. I picked up the album solely for the unusual album art and the pairing of the knockoff Final Fantasy name with the gleefully absurd album title.

This is GOOD. Weird, but good. Imagine a world in which Stephen Sondheim has become as much of an ingrained influence on the indie world as Burt Bacharach did. Pallett uses almost no rock instruments, sticking to string quartet and chamber music sounds (plus what appears to be the Rock-Si-Chord electric keyboard from the original "Company" recording), but the music isn't entirely classical or avant-garde. It's a genre seemingly all its own. Imagine a fusion of Sondheim's 1970s output with The Decemberists and Kate Bush, and that's about as close as you're gonna get.

Has anyone else heard this?