Mixtape Muse: REVIEW: Owen

Owen - Ghost Town
MMMM

From his work with Cap’n Jazz to American Football, Mike Kinsella has always displayed a knack for being able to translate emotional weight through dizzying guitar riffs just as well as any singer ever could. As Owen, Kinsella has proven to be a master at arranging and layering, creating something soothing and accessible that still manages to be relatively complex and deep without losing a sense of purpose. Owen’s sixth full-length album, Ghost Town, is no different.

Covering themes of religion, love, loss, life vs. death, Kinsella presents a wide range of emotions simply, but captures their unspoken complexities through his careful, impressive layering and lush instrumentation; orchestral string, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and percussion all fuse together to create a dynamic album that’s both singular in sound as well as multi-faceted with its range of textures and tones. It’s folk meets math rock meets orchestral pop, or orchestral folk math rock – quite a mouthful. But to his credit, the success of Ghost Town is its ability to fuse these styles into one agreeable mix, one that highlights Kinsella’s modest yet frank poeticism – even wrapped in metaphor, his words can strike a chord deep inside the heart and soul.

Kinsella’s gentle, sometimes reserved, vocal delivery keeps the songs from reaching a particularly visceral stage to provide many real surprises, but his detailed, intertwining riffs paint a rather compelling story. Mellow, at times plaintive, “No Place Like Home” features an undertow of electric guitar riffs that ebb and flow over top the back and forth rhythm. The religious overtones of “I Believe” might be a bit too upfront for some, but it’s one of the most gorgeous songs with Kinsella’s meditative pacing, ringing guitar chords, and looping guitar melody revealing an internal struggle of acceptance; it does well in conveying his faithful pondering. The sobering “An Animal” is near haunting with its opening measures of electric guitar winding between acoustic fingerpicking; the introduction of additional acoustic guitars and touches of cello deepens the mood and exposes Ghost Town as an album of understated magnificence.

Ghost Town is a bit of an existential album, with Kinsella tactfully addressing his purpose, actions, faith, and relationships – as well as the passing of his father. It’s an album rich in heartfelt confessions that beautifully unravel thanks to Kinsella’s careful consideration for how his guitars’ joint web of notes serves to complement his ruminations. He tackles the somewhat unpalatable things (doubt, death, etc.) with impressive grace, never coming across as cloying or sick with nostalgia – the true triumph of the record is how Kinsella beautifully remarks on the grit of life. It’s a perfect album, a perfect soundtrack, for autumn or the dead of winter with its warm instrumentation and tender feel. Ghost Town is a capsule of memories and reminder that, in this life, time is the greatest teacher of them all. How will we know what it all means? As Kinsella sings in “Mother’s Milk Breath,” “You will in time…”

Ghost Town is out now on Polyvinyl.

Owen - "No Place Like Home" from Ghost Town