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May 6, 2013At only 28 minutes long, Lysandre is easily digestible in a single sitting, but that really just embellishes its true purpose--to temporarily whet our appetites till all those other Christopher Owens solo records appear.
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Mar 7, 2013The 33-year-old Owens has funneled his usual druggy, droogy Flaming-Lips-stuffed-into-Beach-House tone into something cohesive and made it into Cali-folk popping and bright.
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MagnetFeb 11, 2013Flute and saxophone abound on this record, employed with a degree of schmaltz that works against the songs more often then not. [No. 95, p.57]
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Feb 11, 2013For the most part Lysandre is a masterful exhibition of how to execute and relay truth and emotion.
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Feb 4, 2013Though Owens takes precise measures to avoid it, the downfall of Lysandre ultimately comes down to this same-y-ness, as the majority of the album's tracks do very little to truly grab the listeners attention.
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Feb 1, 2013While the concept behind Lysandre works well on Owens’ first debut outing, there is always a nagging feeling of something missing throughout the record.
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Jan 29, 2013Most of the time, Lysandre as a record feels confused and stifled.
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Jan 29, 2013No one will ever get sick of Love Songs--they're an essential product of the thing we call the human condition. But it's easy to get sick of these.
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Q MagazineJan 24, 2013For the most part, this is a pastoral, frequently beautiful folk record, spiked with the odd unexpected diversion. [Feb 2013, p.112]
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Jan 24, 2013Lysandre frequently charms. It is a primarily low-key statement, but does enough to suggest that Owens' future post-Girls may be very promising.
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Jan 22, 2013Lysandre is full of problems/problematic things, and most of it rests on one of the album's biggest problems: the insistent, ever-present "me."
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MojoJan 18, 2013On Lysandre, his vision feels more expansive. [Feb 2013, p.88]
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Jan 17, 2013Aside from its travelogue conceit and the way its opening renaissance faire-like leitmotif appears on all the tracks, Lysandre suffers from a lack of direction and cohesion.
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Jan 16, 2013Instead of making the more personal record that he intended by telling his side of the tour story, Owens has created his most detached album yet.
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Jan 15, 2013Each song feels fully formed yet tells a unique and important chapter in this period of Owens' life.
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Jan 15, 2013Lysandre is a fresh start for a writer with a fine ear for the way happiness and heartbreak intertwine.
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Jan 15, 2013Bonds and connections that seemed soul-deep and vital tend to dissipate with nothing more than time and distance, but before Owens can grapple with that truth in Lysandre, it's already slipped away.
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Jan 15, 2013Lysandre, his solo debut, is a slip of an album, 11 songs under 30 minutes, and it's a fascinating curveball.
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Jan 15, 2013Even with the thematic ties running throughout Lysandre, it isn't overly ambitious: The 11 songs clock in at less than half an hour, and the main musical theme that shows up in nearly every one of them becomes a wearisome prop by the end of the album.
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Jan 15, 2013These three tracks ["A Broken Heart," "Lysandre," and "Everywhere You Knew"] function as everything Owens could have dreamed this first solo effort to be. But the rest of the album, which aims for similar points of emotional cohesiveness, but due to some ham-fisted instrumental choices, the message can become muddled.
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Jan 15, 2013As a solo debut, Lysandre is a self-indulgent effort that succeeds in spite of itself; it also signals an artist shaking off the shackles of the past and embracing a wider range of sounds and ideas.
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Jan 15, 2013As it stands, the album is a decent attempt at a fresh start that won't put off too many Girls fans, but until he figures out exactly what kind of singer/songwriter he wants to be, won't likely earn him too many new fans.
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Jan 15, 2013A narrative concept album that runs a mere 29 minutes and is both more musically ornate yet somehow also slighter than anything Girls attempted, a deeply personal work whose arch presentation serves to keep you at an emotional distance.
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Jan 15, 2013It's easy-listening music for deeply uneasy times.
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Jan 14, 2013Too often, it just doesn't seem like he was as ambitious with the craft of this one as he was with past efforts, however natural they may have sounded.
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Jan 14, 2013Lysandre justifies its own existence by virtue of its own wide eyed wonder, its own vulnerability, and its giving sense of heart.
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Jan 14, 2013At just under a half-hour (a runtime probably inspired by the days when vinyl records could only contain about 40 minutes of music), Lysandre is a frustrating listen.
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Jan 14, 2013Except for all the bits about getting high, and the bit about begging his best friend not to kill him, Lysandre is a composite love story as old as the hills, but this retelling is surprisingly refreshing.
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Jan 10, 2013The result--a series of dreamlike recollections of one turbulent summer--is mostly irresistible.
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Jan 10, 2013The results are sometimes sharp, as on mischievous New York City and Here We Go Again, with their mirrored melodies reinterpreted on flute and sax. Other times, his lyrical directness relies on clichés--reminding us that love sometimes sounds quite ordinary.
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Jan 9, 2013That Christopher Owens' songs are so simultaneously vivid, immersive and indulgent is one thing, that he has crafted the character to execute them so expertly is quite another.
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Jan 8, 2013Lysandre inevitably feels a bit skimpy. It's still an unnervingly tuneful warm-up: freed from his hipster shackles, Owens is harnessing the power of the incredibly uncool--and he's all the cooler for it.
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UncutJan 7, 2013He's continuing his romp through totally unfashionable styles, armed with his endearingly earnest voice and a lot of flutes. [Feb 2013, p.77]
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Jan 7, 2013A terse concept album. [Jan-Feb 2013, p.89]
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Alternative PressJan 7, 2013Lysandre proves the chameleonic Owen can say the same thing over and over and never run out of inspiration. [Feb 2013, p.92]
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Jan 7, 2013The man's bid for a place in the pantheon of gifted and fascinating greats is still on course.