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MagnetAug 11, 2016Kinsella's mastery of pop melodicism in the service of heartbreakingly beautiful and unvarnished sentiment is again on full and perfect display. [No. 134, p.59]
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Jul 29, 2016Songs rarely adhere to one form, instead taking bits and pieces of Kinsella’s career and making them all sound fresh. It’s the kind of record that will appease Owen fans, but it’s lush enough--and inspired enough--to suggest that Owen is perhaps the best it’s ever been.
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Jul 27, 2016The King of Whys is wrought with restless artistry, simultaneously looking for and finding emotional release through musical exploration, lyrical introspection and bits of dry humour.
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Jul 26, 2016Warmly mature yet never dull, this is a rare treat.
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Jul 27, 2016The lush sonics of The King of Whys are a far cry from the lo-fi stylings of his 2001 full-length debut, but they seem a natural fit; Kinsella’s warm fingerpicking has always had a way of filling space and creating even more of it, and the added instrumentation fills those gaps with an atmosphere appropriate for each composition.
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Jul 26, 2016Throughout, the unifying characteristic is the richness and warmth of the sound, a million miles from the lo-fi of old; this is the prettiest Owen record to date, and there’s no shortage of strong contenders for that particular title.
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Aug 2, 2016The King of Whys is never not magnificent, maybe too much for its own good–despite Kinsella’s unsparing account of his father's alcoholism and depression, the handclaps and chipper strumming of “A Burning Soul” could’ve made it a mid-‘90s college hit à la Guster.
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Aug 24, 2016May have just been two or three tracks too long but in the end, The King of Whys addresses a lot of things that we can relate to.
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Aug 8, 2016Instrumentally, the album maintains the similar Owen tropes we’ve come to love and expect.
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Jul 29, 2016Rather than taking many risks, The King of Whys polishes the most successful aspects of past Owen albums, making it one of the strongest albums in Kinsella’s vast discography; the home truths may not make it an enjoyable listen, but it’s definitely worthwhile.
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Jul 26, 2016The King of Whys is still more intimate than any of Kinsella's prior bands, like American Football or Owls, or even Joan of Arc. The album is otherwise not likely to stand out among Owen's catalog, but it's still an affecting and worthwhile effort from an artist who's as reliably tuneful as candid.
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Jul 26, 2016Although there is nothing world-beating here, Kinsella has been quietly plugging away at this project for over a decade now, and as he approaches middle-age, may well have struck a formula that propels his Owen project into the stratosphere of other highly regarded midwest-American contemporaries Bon Iver, Sufjan Stevens or Tallest Man on Earth.