Final Fantasy He Poos Clouds Label: Tomlab Release Date: 06/13/06

There are two things on my mind tonight. First, where is my nasonex nasal spray? Second, why in tarnation was Dungeons and Dragons the basis of Final Fantasy’s He Poos Clouds?

Owen Pallett, the mastermind behind Final Fantasy, tickled my soft pallet last year with his debut release entitled Has A Good Home. This album was recorded in about a week, aiming the spotlight on Owen’s lofty vocals and prodigal violin skills. It was an impressive debut, but was easily ignored and forgotten when playing for more than a few tracks.

One year later, Final Fantasy released a sophomore album which dallies with string quartets, church halls, children’s choirs, and provative lyrics compliments of Mr. Pallett himself. When I first heard He Poos Clouds I envisioned the pale Canadian jousting around in the Globe Theatre with his violin. Three seconds later my mind zoomed to an ancient opera house complete with hundred foot tall velvet curtains and a well-populated violin pit. I love the feeling each of eight tracks bring me. I feel as if I am in the audience of a giant palace, tingling as the bows strike the strings and jumping with fright as the percussion creeps in like an oncoming sneeze.

He Poos Clouds is as exciting as Halloween is to an eight year old child. I wish I could ask every person to record their minds’ adventures when experiencing Final Fantasy because I am curious to see what the tickertape of the human brain will reveal. On Tomlab’s website, it provides a list of 3 points Owen Pallett used when making He Poos Clouds. The first one involves the eight Dungeons and Dragons’ schools of magic (eight songs = one for each school?), the second concerns vocals and strings, and the third is as follows: No body who listens to it will ever again entertain thoughts of suicide. I don’t think I will ever forget this–not even when I’m roller-skating in heaven. But man, I wish I would have jumped in on a game of D&D when my old Scholastic Bowl team members were playing between buzzer rounds…then I wouldn’t be so puzzled about the symbiosis of He Poos Clouds and a magical card game sold at K-mart.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 29th, 2006 at 7:18 pm and is filed under CD/LP. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.