Owen Pallett - Heartland

Previously known as Final Fantasy, but now trading under his own name, Owen Pallet has until now been best known for his work on other people’s records: he’s lent string arrangements to Arcade Fire, Last Shadow Puppets and, erm, Mika, among others. That should change with Heartland, which looks set to win him new fans and detractors in equal measure. Pallett’s vocals are effete, his string arrangements are dizzyingly complex, and this record is dramatic, extravagant, ostentatious and very beautiful – in other words it’s as gay as a handbag full of rainbows.

Pallett’s style may put off some – indeed the very title of his last record, He Poos Clouds was enough to alienate some listeners – but he’s worth persevering with, because this is the first great album of 2010. It’s a concept album about a farmer called Lewis, which may sound pretty dreadful. But the good news is that you don’t have to bother following the storyline – as it happens, the highlights include a fight with a cockatrice and a tryst that ends in more violence – to enjoy these extraordinary songs. Comparisons with Joanna Newsom’s Ys have followed Owen Pallett around, and it’s easy to see why – though to my mind Heartland conjured up memories of first hearing Van Dyke Parks’ Song Cycle, while centrepiece The Great Elsewhere has more than a ring of Brian Wilson’s Heroes and Villains about it.

Pallett’s talent is undisputed, but what’s particularly impressive is that even his most outré ideas come off beautifully. Lewis Takes Action – the scene of that cockatrice debacle – rides in on Be My Baby drums, and bounces along to oompah brass and Disney strings. Meanwhile, Pallett threatens to ‘bludgeon til the body’s cold’ in a mannered vocal style that probably isn’t best suited to threatening to bludgeon a cockatrice – and yet somehow the whole thing is stupendously brilliant.

Most talents this unhinged require some reigning in, but not Owen Pallett’s. His days as a gun for hire are surely past him – if you only buy one completely bonkers gay baroque ‘n’ roll concept album about a farmer this year, make it this one.