Owen – “Virtue Misspent” & “Hit And Run”
For many years, Mike Kinsella, from bands like American Football and Cap’n Jazz, has been releasing solo music under the name Owen. Next month, he’ll release his new album The Falls Of Sioux, which he recorded with Bon Iver collaborators S. Carey and Zach Hanson. We’ve already posted first single “Beaucoup,” and now Kinsella has shared two more tracks.
Both new Owen songs are nice representations of the project, which tends toward a more laid-back and bucolic version of the floridly complex indie rock that Mike Kinsella has made with some of his bands. “Virtue Misspent” has a synthpop twinkle-glow, and Kinsella says that it’s his homage to New Order: “The guitar part always sounded to me like a Peter Hook bassline, so I sort of leaned into that in the studio by adding synth strings and plugging the electric guitar straight into the board, etc. The video is an homage to me, having lived a life and having fucked up a lot along the way.”
“Hit And Run,” meanwhile, is a deeply sad rumination on the idea that you’re doomed to replicate the darkness that comes down through your family line. On that one, Kinsella says, “There’s usually one song on each of my ow(e)n albums that makes me cry, and this is the one this time.” Below, watch the “Virtue Misspent” video, which was directed by Alec Basse and Max Moore, and listen to “Hit And Run.”
The Falls Of Sioux is out 4/26 on Polyvinyl.