Owen 'At Home With Owen' album

We all need to move out sometimes, whether we like it or not. On 'At Home With,' Chicago's Mike Kinsella (Cap'n Jazz, Joan of Arc, American Football, Owls), the sole creative output behind Owen, figuratively leaves the at-home bedroom that has characterized so much of Owen's past musical output. Along the way, he finds true love, gains (and then loses) some weight, subscribes to cable television and endures the death of a parent. And then he writes a new record about the process, detailing the many transformations in his life.

From an artist whom has, in the past, recorded entire albums in his childhood bedroom berating lost love and personal missteps, it's a new chapter. One of finally feeling 'At Home With' one's self, and inevitably breaking down each element of song and discovering what is simple, good and beautifully cathartic. In a word, Kinsella took his shoes off and got comfortable. Bitingly comfortable.

'At Home With,' Owen's fourth full-length album, begins with what might be considered the quietest testament to the phrase "Fuck You" ever written in music. Entitled 'Bad News,' the song somberly drifts in and around an imagined confrontation between Kinsella and an indie superego hellbent on outside perception. Kinsella fires first, pensively stating "Whatever it is you think you are, you aren't." And never has such a bitter indictment been arranged so eloquently, dancing between delicately balanced keyboards, a plucked acoustic guitar and Kinsella's fragile shadow of a voice.

From there, 'At Home With' lyrically expands outside the realm of familiar Owen territory. "The space in my head that used to be filled with girls and the ensuing drama is now free to think a little more critically about myself and others in terms that aren't necessarily relationship oriented," says Kinsella. And though the subject of love is explored on 'The Sad Waltzes of Pietro Crespi' and 'Bird In Hand,' it is celebrated instead of denigrated. Kinsella has accepted true love into his life, and he's not afraid to let the world know about it ups, its downs and how to deal with the shortcomings of both camps. Along the way, Kinsella also comes to grips with the reality of touring and playing in bands ('Windows and Doorways'), personal injuries ('Bag of Bones') and the death of his father juxtaposed against the idea of growing up ('One of These Days'). Lyrically, 'At Home With' brokers an expansive range of emotions; love, hurt, sardonic self-deprecation, carefully arranged over Kinsella's brand of desolate, graceful melodies, which welcomes a new depth on 'At Home With.'

Kinsella's figurative step away from bedroom recording allows for an alternative approach to the songs recorded on 'At Home With.' "I've always hated how two-dimensional the other Owen albums have sounded, and I think this one's finally got a third dimension," says Kinsella. The new approach to recording involved a fraction of pre-recording at his mom's house (in which Joan of Arc had just recorded an entire album's worth of material), followed by sessions at Semaphore Studios (with cousin Nate Kinsella, who also plays on the record) and Engine Studios (with Brian Deck). This newfound transient approach to recording allows the music of Owen to reach a new depth; one that sways between organic overtures and fervent, lush ballads.

The end result is 'At Home With,' a new extension in the lineage of Owen's music. And being at home with one's self never sounded so freeing.

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Owen - At Home With Owen