{"title":"Owen","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"the-falls-of-sioux-3","title":"The Falls Of Sioux","description":"\u003cp\u003eSpanning more than two decades, Mike Kinsella's widely influential songwriting has steadily sharpened and evolved with each new chapter. In his solo vehicle as Owen (in addition to his roles along the way with American Football, Cap'n Jazz, the more recent LIES, and other collaborative ventures), Kinsella’s ability to seamlessly stitch jagged emotional currents into crushingly beautiful songs has remained at the forefront of his art. The Falls of Sioux, Mike Kinsella’s newest Owen full-length, represent a type of reinvention; feeling like the natural next step in Kinsella’s growth, both artistic and personal. The album perforates an established sound to explore unlikely musical ideas, while the songs document a time of moving through life-altering turmoil into brighter days. Heavy themes are turned over with a gentle hand, and Kinsella inhabits the deeper perspectives that come with hard-earned life experience. This contrast has become more distinct as Owen expanded from unassuming acoustic beginnings into more ornate production, reaching new levels of complexity and clarity by the release of 2020’s The Avalanche.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Big Scary Monsters","offers":[{"title":"Black LP","offer_id":50385411637579,"sku":"2193646","price":24.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/test_c759e4b7_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1726312423"},{"product_id":"the-king-of-whys","title":"The King of Whys","description":"\u003cp\u003eOwen - the acclaimed solo musical guise of singer \/ songwriter \/ multi-instrumentalist Mike Kinsella - has made an astonishing leap forward with 'The King of Whys', the first work in his two-decade-plus career to be made entirely outside of the greater Chicagoland area. Produced by S. Carey over 18 days last winter at April Base Studios in Eau Claire, WI, the album is Owen's most inspired and evocative thus far, interpolating a group dynamic into what has long been an intensely intimate sound. Songs like 'The Desperate Act' and 'Sleep Is A Myth' remain spare but with a distinctly outward shift in scope, their open-armed sonic range a perfect foil to Kinsella's evocative explorations of marriage, melancholia, and modern middle age. Fraught with hurt and wry humor, 'The King of Whys' is a portrait of a restless artist grappling with doubt and ghosts of the past but searching for meaning through candor, creativity, and an ardent need for emotional release. CD - Digipack.LP+ - Orange vinyl edition - pressed on 180 Gram transparent orange vinyl plus Download. Limited to 500 copies.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Wichita Recordings","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":50451512066379,"sku":"403907","price":19.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/f78b3b9d-0066-40c5-b5e8-8e3e30dd2833_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727127888"},{"product_id":"the-avalanche-1","title":"The Avalanche","description":"\u003cp\u003eMike Kinsella’s work over the years with his various musical endeavors has been nothing short of foundational, from early days with Cap’n Jazz right up until recently with American Football’s unforeseen and excellent second act. Even with his long list of contributions to course-setting bands, Kinsella never reveals more of his internal world than he does with the softly drawn songs of his long running solo project Owen. With new album The Avalanche, he delivers a set of Owen songs that are the most straightforward and unguarded the project has ever been.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEchoes of the lo-fi bedroom balladry that defined early Owen come through on the heart-crushing \u003ci\u003eI Should Have Known,\u003c\/i\u003e familiar open-tuned acoustic guitars and weary vocals supported by glowing string arrangements.\u003ci\u003e On With The Show\u003c\/i\u003e is bounding and upbeat, with a jangly instrumental standing in stark contrast to lyrics about crushing failure. KC Dalager from Now, Now contributes guest vocals to several songs, most notably the glacially paced album centerpiece \u003ci\u003eMom and Dead\u003c\/i\u003e. Layers of glimmering pedal steel and understated music box piano tones build into one of the album’s hardest gut-punches, stunningly pretty instrumentation gift wrapping lines as indisputably bleak as “Wake up, I had a dream you died.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Avalanche\u003c\/i\u003e takes on a new refinement, with spacious musical landscapes making room for devastating lyrics that return to themes of an unravelling marriage and big endings. On previous albums, sarcasm and wry humor would dull the sting of heavier lyrics. Here there are still traces of Kinsella’s trademark humor, but instead of offering a winking dismissal of negative thoughts, it takes the songs to even darker places. Easily the most intense Owen album, \u003ci\u003eThe Avalanche\u003c\/i\u003e is also the most beautifully crafted. Kinsella goes deeper than ever before, with self-reflection so painfully blunt it’s sometimes difficult to look at head on. It’s a guided walk through one of life’s more difficult chapters, resulting in nine of the best Owen songs ever penned and an album that’s as heartbreaking as it is magnificent.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Big Scary Monsters","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":50465307296075,"sku":"1094522","price":22.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/f15ea275-d3d6-451a-a7cb-7bea69ca13ef_thumbnail_4096.png?v=1727285639"}],"url":"https:\/\/shop.roughtrade.com\/de\/collections\/owen.oembed","provider":"Rough Trade","version":"1.0","type":"link"}