OWEN PALLETT – Spectrum, 14th Century & Plays To Please EPs – LP – REWIGLP157

Pallett’s combination of pop idiom and classical practice is fluid and natural; he sounds perfectly at home here, miles from the self-conscious “conceptual” way indie acts usually take up string quartets. But this may or may not be an album for classicists. Pallett’s arrangements are terrific in their rhythmic tangles of strings, pushing and weaving in odd spots, but they’re also– intentionally or unintentionally– the tiniest bit monochrome, heavy in staccato undertows and the same arch feeling as the album’s title.

Nitsuh Abebe / Pitchfork