Release Date: November 8, 2011
On Ghost Town, Mike Kinsella (aka Owen) has dramatically changed his sound into a more progressive-heavy-metal dubstep hybrid … gotcha!
At this point, we’re all pretty much expecting the same thing from Owen: some complexly arranged acoustic-guitar numbers that are pulled off with an almost childlike perfection. We’re expecting some slightly introspective lyrics with enough tongue-and-cheek wit to make us cringe and squirm with how close they get to crossing the line of being a guilty pleasure. This album doesn’t do any of that, as it does perfect dives instrumentally and merely treads water lyrically.
On Ghost Town, the addition of many more folk and string instruments on a majority of the songs helps break this album apart from just another acoustic-rock album from one of the Kinsella brothers. (Mike and Tim Kinsella have worked together in several Illinois-based acts such as Joan of Arc and Cap’n Jazz.) Also, the addition of these strings and folky arrangements give Owen’s classic acoustic “sad-bastard rock” (said as a die-hard Kinsella fan) a new, full-bodied taste. And the strings aren’t added as a last resort to make certain songs stick out from the others like some bands are forced to do when they run out of material.
From the first song, “Too Many Moons,” we hear a standard finger-picked acoustic-guitar diddy with Kinsella singing your standard Owen lyrics in a typical Owen fashion, but with small background strings slowly stirring in the background until about a minute into the song, the guitar and lyrics drop and the strings come in full force to the front of the song as the leading instruments. At this point, the listener realizes that the guitar isn’t the focus of the song as we’re used to. The strings are their own entity like in Cursive’s Ugly Organ. They are fully realized and a being all their own.
In addition to that, “Too Many Moons” also reveals one of Ghost Town’s new instrumental strengths to be the acoustic-guitar arrangements. They are produced individually, and even someone who isn’t an audiophile will be able to tell the difference in production style for each song with ease. This helps someone who isn’t the die-hard fan tell the songs from one another because this helps show each song’s individual flavor. Owen has taken the acoustic guitar ”silent shredding” style and brought a more flamenco touch to it, and it makes each riff zing a little bit harder than it normally would.
Ghost Town brings all of Owen’s strengths to the plate. It is like what Conor Oberst probably thought Cassadaga sounded like, or what it could have been, if it were less country and had loads more effort and originality put into it.
Lyrically, this album feels a bit redundant. There isn’t a single song that has a chorus that has the power that “Good Friends, Bad Habits” did, and definitely nothing worth singing along to with your friends. However, instrumentally this album is better than any Owen album to date, which is something the fans needed.
And honestly, did anyone really think Kinsella had anything more interesting to say about Chicago he hadn’t already said in an album called Ghost Town anyway?
Owen – Ghost Town Tracklist:
- “Too Many Moons”
- “No Place Like Home”
- “O, Evelyn …”
- “I Believe”
- “The Armoire”
- “An Animal”
- “No Language”
- “Mother’s Milk Breath”
- “Everyone’s Asleep in the House but Me”
