Back in November 2006, the artist formerly known as Final Fantasy revealed the title of his upcoming third full-length album to themusicslut.com, calling it: "… an LP with the inoffensive/boring title of Heartland." "Recording wise, it’s going to sound exactly like [previous record] He Poos Clouds but with better microphones, better writing and we’re using compressors to make it sound taut and clicky. No more weak, fey shit! Except the singing. That will always be tacky." One can’t blame Owen Pallett for wanting to perpetuate the formula of his 2006 Polaris Music Prize winner. Heartland supersedes He Poos Clouds on technical efficiency, but is in no way a delayed twin of his second album.
Whether Heartland outshines He Poos Clouds is irrelevant. It’s like trying to compare Michelangelo’s sculpture of David to his painting of the Sistine Chapel ceiling. They are both great works of art. The main difference from Pallett’s previous album is that Heartland employs a full 50-piece orchestra, expanding the bedroom string quartet sound to a grand symphony hall. The Canadian musician also expands the fusion of electronic and classical instrumentation. The lyrics, while still influenced by role-playing video games, unfold like an epic novel. Whereas the previous album dealt mainly with the eight schools of magic in the Dungeons & Dragons, the latest continues the fantasy allegory of Spectrum, 14th Century EP, released in 2008. Evolving around an ultra-violent farmer named Lewis in a fictional land of Spectrum, located in the mouth of Owen, who happens to be a deity that has taken a shine to Lewis, Heartland is a journey of a turbulent relationship between a man and his god. Pallett has a lyrical gift to write an engaging fiction, which often can be interpreted as a poignant commentary on society, making the peculiar twelve-song LP all the more striking. Parents, take note of what video games can do for your children.
"Midnight Directives" commences Heartland, like a dawn chorus with the soft, high vocals woo-hooing over a bed of analog synth. The pace picks up, aided by Arcade Fire (QRO live review) drummer Jeremy Gara’s tight percussion work. The album progresses into an experimental theater showcase with "Keep the Dog Quiet", "Mount Alpentine" and "Red Sun No. 5" until the fifth track, "Lewis Takes Action", which sounds more like a traditional pop music than its predecessors. The genre-fusion experiment continues with "The Great Elsewhere". Pulsating electronic punch opening eventually giving away to polyphony of symphonic fever that races against Pallett’s sweeping vocals, track number six transforms the modern synth dissonance into a classical piano cadence.
The second half of Heartland contains its two most poppy songs. Having heard the first single, "Lewis Takes His Shirt Off", live before the studio version, the recording felt little flat. But it is easily the most accessible tune on the album with singsong chorus of "I’m never gonna give it to you," deluding the violent battle between Lewis and Owen. On "Tryst with Mephistopheles", Pallett’s electric bass nicely compliments the string section, interchanging with the brass section later in the song, aiding the pace of this nearly seven-minute drama of the final confrontation between the two characters. The violinist gets intimate with the piano on the grave ballad, "E for Estranged", nestled among the grandiose string arrangement, a stark contrast to the staccato, vivace composition of the preceding tune, "Flare Gun". "What Do You Think Will Happen Now?" finds Lewis coming to terms with his fate. On this final track, overlapping vocals of pensive admission softly closes the saga with the final words: "My arms are wide / I am a good man / I am yours."
If one could dare to challenge Pallett’s operatic pop masterpiece, his lovely vocals would get the call. The singer’s timbre emulates the lush string arrangements he has meticulously written on sleep deprivation, locked up in a Prague hotel room. Most of the time, the Toronto native’s vox meshes well with the orchestra, but occasionally, it gets muddled and competes with the symphony, as in the chorus of "Tryst With Mephistopheles" and "The Great Elsewhere".
Heartland is not for those looking for an instant gratification. Like the video games that have been a big part of the thirty-year-old songwriter, one must keep playing Pallett’s album to fully reap the reward of his work (and yours). Always in demand by other bands and filmmakers for string arrangements, it will be a shame if the master of Baroque pop sidelines his solo project. Hopefully in the future, Owen Pallett will be more famous for his own songs than his work for Arcade Fire.