song of the day: april 27/2011

Final Fantasy - This is the Dream of Win and Regine
Album: Has a Good Home [2005]

toronto-based violinist/singer/songwriter owen pallett has been a member of the groups les mouches and picastro, as well as a touring member of the hidden cameras and arcade fire -he composed strings for the latter's "neon bible" album. final fantasy, essentially a one-man solo project with occasional help from drummer/engineer leon taheny, released its first full recording, "has a good home", in 2005 on the small toronto-based cooperative label club blocks. the one-man classically trained canadian string section - think andrew bird and patrick wolf - created an eye-opening baroque pop record that manages to appeal to both the bespectacled hipster and the disgruntled orchestra student. his vocals have come a long way since this, but as per usual, it's the skip-along string arrangements that make the songs. not much is known about the track, "this is the dream of win and regine", but some of the lyrics seem to touch on the subjects (win butler and regine chassagne) deciding to move to montreal together to create arcade fire and hoping that fame and forture don't come between them. the arcade fire has thus far tried pretty hard to stay as low-key as possible which will be increasingly more difficult as they continue to rise and stardom and produce such fine work. final fantasy's take on this ("crown myself the prince of buzz, can't wait until you unsubscribe") is that win would rather be a lonely songwriter/poet than the lead guy in some over-hyped band. "has a good home" was followed in 2006 by "he poos clouds", which went on to receive the inaugural polaris music prize in canada. in 2008 pallett announced that his next album, "heartland", would be the last under the final fantasy name name, and that all subsequent records would bear the mark of one owen pallett. "heartland", another concept album, dealt with what pallett describes as "the beginning, middle and end of a relationship. but it’s sung from the point of view of the object of my affection".

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