Blocks Recording Club
Revisiting Final Fantasy’s 2006 breakthrough He Poos Clouds it’s almost shocking to see how many musicians contributed to the album. Though mastermind and sole official band member Owen Pallett is widely known for his ability as a collaborator (he arranged the strings on Arcade Fire’s Funeral and Neon Bible ) Clouds is a strikingly insular album — even with over a dozen musicians contributing. Pallett’s live reliance on audio effects and loop pedals to re-create the album only reinforces its solitary feel. On the pair of EPs he’s released over the past month and a half though Pallett seems to be pushing the boundaries of his Final Fantasy moniker.
Spectrum 14th Century finds Pallett downplaying his trademark strings relying instead on Beirut’s horn section and some decidedly tribal percussion. Pallett’s lyrics are as oblique as ever touching on sexuality self-loathing and the nature of art through the lens of a vaguely medieval fantasy. “The Butcher” is particularly heavy loaded as it is with apocalyptic language (and oddly enough an “all your base” reference) but even at its heaviest Spectrum is always propulsive and always engrossing.
Plays to Please the second of the two EPs shelves Pallett’s songwriting and emphasizes his enormous gifts as an arranger. The album’s six songs are all covers of fellow Blocks Recording Club artists Deep Dark United transporting that band’s bizarre jazz and experimental pop to Tin Pan Alley. “Horsetail Feathers” and “Nun or a Bawd” are the two strongest tunes here though for entirely opposite reasons. The former glides in on flute and lilting piano giving way to muted trumpets and the sort of loping cadence best suited to a Gene Kelly musical — its dedication to extravagance is absolutely winning. The latter gets by on its minimalism (after a mildly ostentatious opening fanfare of course). The melody is standard blues but the countless flourishes and variations flitting in the background keep the proceedings consistently off-kilter.
Both EPs expand the boundaries of what a Final Fantasy album can be but they don’t just open up Pallett’s sound they open up his world. He Poos Clouds was rightly praised as a singular work but Pallett’s dense lyrics and looping strings were in danger of collapsing in on themselves. With these two EPs Pallett proves there’s no need to worry about his next full-length — just to eagerly anticipate it.
