Vs. Children

About

Nipping at the heels of March 2009’s <i>Advance Base Battery Life</i> (a compilation of singles and rarities), <i>Vs. Children</i> is the fifth album from Owen Ashworth and his lo-fi studio of Casiotone wizardry. Though comprised of keyboards and electronic bleats that sometimes skip, rollick, twinkle and shimmer with romantic longing, <i>Vs. Children</i> won’t send you into the night gently, but may have you pulling the covers over your head instead. Ashworth has a voice that’s mostly flat and barren and scratchy, like a wintery midwestern landscape. Like Magnetic Fields’ Stephen Merritt or Smog’s Bill Callahan, Ashworth’s lonely voice and his stripped-down compositions conjure a vulnerable and naked neediness, and some of his simplest lines evoke a shudder. (Consider the novella inside this brief lyric: “’Til you’re dead, that’s how long you’re a parent. ‘Til you’re dead.”) Ashworth is a gifted and unique storyteller, and the ways in which his minimalist instrumentation — which somehow manages to conjure dread, hope and resignation in equal parts — can stretch a song into something unpredictable is a continual delight.

via Apple Music