Happy day Final Fantasy fans. At long last, Owen Pallett has given us a release date for his first album proper since 2006's break-out career-starter He Poos Clouds. That date? Well, right now the record is slated for a December 29 release via Tomlab. (UPDATE: Via email, Pallett has informed Exclaim! that no release date has yet been set in stone for Heartland, officially or unofficially. However, we have been ensured the record is indeed on its way.)
As previously reported, Pallett's anticipated Final Fantasy effort has been dubbed Heartland and comes in the wake of two recent teaser EPs, Spectrum and Plays to Please. A few tracks off the album have already been road-tested by the violin-sporting Torontonian, including the songs "Keep the Dog Quiet, "Lewis Takes Action," "The End of Time" and "Tryst With Mephistopheles," and apparently that title is indeed meant to call to mind the farming and manufacturing regions of the Prairies, while also hinting at a more metaphorical heartland.
"I like the title Heartland, it has a double meaning," Pallett recently told Stereogum. "Along with 'homeland,' the word seems to signify feelings of familiarity and comfort, but most often, it's used with a sentiment of xenophobia and/or a sense of entitlement."
Pallett also said that the album was originally supposed to be about "nothingness," but that was eventually abandoned. Instead, he decided to focus on themes of romance, which in a weird way connects back to He Poos Clouds' focus on death, he says. "It's about romance. The thing that comes before death."
At this point, we also know Heartland will have a recording aesthetic that is "analog via digital, masquerading as analog," and that Pallett laid down the album during lone trips to Iceland, with a 50-piece orchestra in Prague and that it will include one song called "The Great Elsewhere," which features "critical mass polyphony" that sounds like "three New Order songs being played at the same time."
Sorry, no tracklisting yet, but you can check out Final Fantasy live during a few festival stops this summer.
Tour dates:
6/24 Calgary, AB - Central United Church (Sled Island Music Festival)
6/25 Guelph, ON - Guelph Lake Island (Hillside Festival)
8/1 London, ON - Victoria Park (Field Day Festival)
8/8-9 Myslowice, Poland - Slupna Park
8/13 Rees-Haldern, Germany - Haldern Pop Festival
As previously reported, Pallett's anticipated Final Fantasy effort has been dubbed Heartland and comes in the wake of two recent teaser EPs, Spectrum and Plays to Please. A few tracks off the album have already been road-tested by the violin-sporting Torontonian, including the songs "Keep the Dog Quiet, "Lewis Takes Action," "The End of Time" and "Tryst With Mephistopheles," and apparently that title is indeed meant to call to mind the farming and manufacturing regions of the Prairies, while also hinting at a more metaphorical heartland.
"I like the title Heartland, it has a double meaning," Pallett recently told Stereogum. "Along with 'homeland,' the word seems to signify feelings of familiarity and comfort, but most often, it's used with a sentiment of xenophobia and/or a sense of entitlement."
Pallett also said that the album was originally supposed to be about "nothingness," but that was eventually abandoned. Instead, he decided to focus on themes of romance, which in a weird way connects back to He Poos Clouds' focus on death, he says. "It's about romance. The thing that comes before death."
At this point, we also know Heartland will have a recording aesthetic that is "analog via digital, masquerading as analog," and that Pallett laid down the album during lone trips to Iceland, with a 50-piece orchestra in Prague and that it will include one song called "The Great Elsewhere," which features "critical mass polyphony" that sounds like "three New Order songs being played at the same time."
Sorry, no tracklisting yet, but you can check out Final Fantasy live during a few festival stops this summer.
Tour dates:
6/24 Calgary, AB - Central United Church (Sled Island Music Festival)
6/25 Guelph, ON - Guelph Lake Island (Hillside Festival)
8/1 London, ON - Victoria Park (Field Day Festival)
8/8-9 Myslowice, Poland - Slupna Park
8/13 Rees-Haldern, Germany - Haldern Pop Festival
