There was a time when Chris Owens and his band Girls, were a really big deal, filling big places, then Girls broke up and Chris embarked in a solo career with the release of ‘Lysandre’, then ‘New Testament’ last year, and the albums brought mixed reactions with some disappointment among fans and critiques. ‘When you’re at home checking your Twitter and reading sophisticated reviews, it can be quite daunting to see people that have supported you from day one suddenly start to just write you off,’ said Chris in a recent interview with Stereogum.
But Chris Owens is not done with surprises and he has just dropped a new album on bandcamp, very unexpectedly, although he had previously shared a track. There was a time when all the blogosphere would have been all over it, but these times seem a bit over since Girls’ breakup. I don’t say he has become invisible, but he certainly get less more exposure these days, Pitchfork made him regress from a 9.3 (Girls’ ‘Faher, Son, Holy Ghost’) to a 6.5 for his solo albums, and he even revealed that his last tour was a sort of financial failure: ‘I had a fantastic time, but the reality is that I didn’t sell out shows’…’ The reality was I lost money, and I lost money on the first album as well because I had a big band then, too’.
I am streaming the new album, called ‘Chrissybaby Forever’ (his Twitter name), and If I will certainly need more time to listen to its 16 tracks, I can tell it still has a very retro, sometimes do-wop-y vibe, with lots of acoustic guitars, whistling, and plenty of sing-alongs and children choruses. It is still deeply soaked in the 60’s or 70’s with Chris’ fragile and wide-eyed vocals, and it’s sometimes a bit odd, out-of date, or rather impossible to date, with old-fashioned tempos, but often reminiscent of Girls’ good days….
In the interview, Chris Owens describes his new work as ‘getting back to the basics’…’just me playing everything with one other person engineering and producing’. And he depicts these backup vocals, which seem to be all over the album, as ‘amateurs and younger girls and very sweet-sounding’… ‘I didn’t want gospel-style backup professional vocals. I wanted it to be more like campfire sing-along or something like that.’
It’s my first listening, it’s pretty music, often upbeat and decorated, but I keep hearing Johann Pachelbel’s ‘Canon in D Major’, through these songs! However, Chris Owens compares himself to a painter: ‘For me it felt like being a painter. You do a little work and then you have a glass of wine and listen to some Brahms or something on the stereo, and then you sit and stare at your painting for a while and then you realize, “Oh crap, I’m taking that off and changing it to yellow.’
I am not sure I like any of the pictures coming with the release, this heroin chic-straitjacket look is sure worrisome, plus there’s a song ‘Heroine (Got Nothing On You)’, I know there’s a e at the end, so is he safe? Apparently, according to the same interview: ‘Then you have to take into the account that, for me, during a period of longer than five years, San Francisco was a giant opium den. It’s very easy for me to say, “I’ve got nothing to do today, it would be so nice to get high, and lay in bed, and just feel fucking great. It’s tricky because I don’t want to live like that anymore. It’s been a bit more of a challenge recently. It used to be easier for me to have downtime, I guess, because I had this sedative. Now I’m a bit more antsy.’
I bought a ticket for his show at the Echo on June 4th before knowing he would drop an album just a week ahead! he will probably play a few of these new songs.
Stream his new album below and catch Chris Owens on tour!
06/03 San Francisco, CA @ The Chapel
06/04 Los Angeles, CA @ The Echo
06/05 San Diego, CA @ The Casbah
06/06 Phoenix, AZ @ Valley Bar
06/09 Dallas, TX @ Club Dada
06/11 Austin, TX @ Red 7
06/12 Houston, TX @ Fitzgerald’s
06/13 New Orleans, LA @ Gasa Gasa
06/16 Atlanta, GA @ The Earl
06/18 Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle Back Room
06/19 Washington, DC @ Rock & Roll Hotel
06/20 Brooklyn, NY @ Baby’s All Right
06/21 New York, NY @ The Mercury Lounge
06/24 Toronto, ON @ The Garrison
06/25 Pontiac, MI @ The Pike Room At The Crofoot
06/26 Chicago, IL @ Schubas Tavern
06/27 Minneapolis, MN @ 7th St. Entry
06/30 Vancouver, BC @ The Cobalt
07/01 Seattle, WA @ Barboza
07/02 Portland, OR @ Doug Fir Lounge
