Owen - The Avalanche - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

On the new Owen album, The Falls of Sioux, Mike Kinsella (American Football, LIES, Cap'n Jazz) returns with the followup to 2020's critically acclaimed album, The Avalanche, and delivers the most ambitious and varied album of his career. Recorded at Hive Studios in Eau Claire, WI + SHIRK Studios in Chicago, IL and produced by S. Carey, Zach Hanson and Mike Kinsella, The Falls of Sioux finds Kinsella taking risks like never before, both lyrically and musically. Featuring lavish string arrangements, vocal contributions from Cacie Dalager (Now, Now), Kinsella's iconic guitar & drumming styles, and even a spoken word vignette, the album is an exciting departure from Kinsella's previous work, while still retaining what makes Owen albums so fascinating and replayable. Mike Kinsella's work over the years with his various musical endeavors has been nothing short of foundational, from early days with Cap'n Jazz right up until recently with American Football's unforeseen and excellent second act. His music has been heralded in outlets such as Rolling Stone, NPR, The NY Times, and Pitchfork, who called American Football's debut album Inchthe most influential album in the genre.Inch

Other People's Songs is a collection of eight covers that Kinsella recorded this spring in Chicago with trusted producer Neil Strauch. At first glance, the list of the rock and punk artists whose tracks Kinsella tackled - among them Against Me!, Depeche Mode, the Promise Ring, and Lungfish - might seem at odds with the often quieter, lushly arranged music he releases under the Owen moniker. But upon closer inspection, one finds the kind of excellent songwriting and lyrical wit that are hallmarks of Kinsella's own recorded output.

Owen - the acclaimed solo musical guise of singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Mike Kinsella - has made an astonishing leap forward with The King of Whys, the first work in his two-decade-plus career to be made entirely outside of the greater Chicagoland area. Produced by S. Carey over 18 days last winter at April Base Studios in Eau Claire, WI, the album is Owen's most inspired and evocative thus far, interpolating a group dynamic into what has long been an intensely intimate sound. Songs like InchThe Desperate ActInch and InchSleep Is A MythInch remain spare but with a distinctly outward shift in scope, their open-armed sonic range a perfect foil to Kinsella's evocative explorations of marriage, melancholia, and modern middle age. Fraught with hurt and wry humor, The King of Whys is a portrait of a restless artist grappling with doubt and ghosts of the past but searching for meaning through candor, creativity, and an ardent need for emotional .