Owen Pallett - Heartland

Restraint has always been a key factor for the artist formerly known as Final Fantasy. Owen Pallett’s delicate chamber-pop nuggets could easily be expanded into glorious widescreen, especially given his connections to Arcade Fire amongst many others, but he has always known when less is more.

Sophomore album He Poos Clouds (no, seriously) was a mite grander and certainly a darker affair but third album Heartland expands on these facets considerably. Utilising the Czech Symphony Orchestra, much of Heartland plays out like the darkest of fairytales and suitably enough, Pallet has conjured up his own conceptual world. It centres on Lewis, a psychotic farmer from the Spectrum world who, on the suitably named Lewis Takes Action, “bludgeons ‘til the body’s cold”.

It's an ambitious album, no doubt, and Pallett’s compositions still hit the right notes, but those who have picked their way through previous works might be left wondering where that precious restraint has gone. [Darren Carle]