Final Fantasy

Owen Pallett is the brains and brawn behind Canadian-based Final Fantasy. He is the frontman and the backing band, and often even seems to act as his own one-man audience. He Poos Clouds expels self-conscious orchestral arrangement into the experimental outhouse of indie singer-songwriter overindulgence. The arrangements of pedal-looped violins, piano, limited percussion and varied string instruments make for pretty compositions, but the forced intimacy fogs the album in a cold sterility. Xiu Xiu is cited as one of Pallett’s favorite groups, and while it’s clearly an influence — from the lo-fi technical accompaniment to the pained vocal frankness — Fantasy comes apart in the too obvious emulation of another person’s work. Pallett, who is undoubtedly multi-armed in talent, has essentially crafted an album to impress himself as a chamber version of Xiu Xiu, but he’d really be better off looking for himself somewhere else.