Owen – No Good For No One Now
(Polyvinyl)

Am I a little sick of the whole acoustic thing? Yes.

With certain exceptions, I find it to mostly sound the same: wish-wash strumming on the same note while he/she wails out love poems that I just can’t relate to. I guess it’s unfair that comparisons to most solo acoustic artists seem to come back to Dashboard Confessional nowadays, so I will avoid that.

One thing Owen has on Dashboard is the band is a little more interesting. However, not interesting enough to catch my attention for the full album. One of the more interesting songs, Everything Feels Like You, is somewhat interesting at it’s seven minute running time. The song seems to be split in two with the refreshing use of a drum machine in the second half of the song. Everything else just seems to follow the same path, including a ten minute epic that just doesn’t seem to get anywhere.

One of the more important things to an artist like this is a distinct voice. I’m not hearing anything new or refreshing. Sometimes a nice singing voice can work against you I feel. It lacks any character that an unusual voice will bring. If only Owen didn’t know how to sing! That would be an album.

Overall it’s not a horrible record, it just doesn’t separate itself from anything else I’ve heard. It’s one of those albums that you have to be in a certain mood to listen to, and luckily I haven’t been in that mood for a while now. — Jay

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