FINAL FANTASY - He Poos Clouds

Owen Pallett is a young violinist from Toronto who drew plenty of attention last year with his debut album, "Has a Good Home". The record, written for solo violin and loop pedal, was viewed by critics somewhat as a dry run: it would be the follow-up that showed what the Canadian was really made of.

And the follow-up, titled "He Poos Cloulds", arrived very quickly. On it, Pallett gave the songs a full makeover, working with a genuine chamber-music ensemble (string quartet, piano, harpsichord and percussion), devoting equal care to composition and arrangement, and landing squarely in that "modern singer-songwriter" vein somewhere between Patrick Wolf and Dave Longstreth (Dirty Projectors).

Listening to the opening track, "Arctic Circle", it's England that actually comes to mind, with the melodic line, laid over an insistent bed of strings, wandering into Morrissey-esque territory.

From the former Smiths singer and from new dandy Wolf, Pallett also borrows the romantic streak, dressing it up with even greater emphasis, as in "I'm Afraid of Japan", enough to soften a desolation potentially worthy of Nico.

At times the vocals brush up, in a "normalized" way, against those of Jamie Stewart (especially, and quite obviously, in the introverted, slow closer "The Pooka Sings").

The quality of the tracks mentioned is high, and the same goes for every track on the record: even against that average, though, there's no shortage of highlights.

That's the case with the lively orchestration of the title track, its melody chasing and relaunching itself; with the pensive gait of "Many Lives 49 MP", its male vocal inserts acting as party-crashers; but above all with the splendid "This Lamb Sells Condos", a sweet little piano tune that slowly opens up into a bed for female choir, in an epic crescendo of layered voices.

Worth mentioning, finally, are a couple of successful variations on the theme, like the catchy "Song Song Song", with its ringing violins and a structure forever on the verge of a take-off that never comes, sliding instead into churchy organ notes; and the drunken, swaying song split between tavern and parlour that is "Do You Love?".

The leap has paid off. Pallett may not be touched by genius, but he's certainly swimming in talent.

"He Poos Clouds" is an operetta that combines pleasure, imagination, quality and sheer listenability.

A record that deserves repeated listens. Who knows, the future might even bring something more.

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10/05/2006