Owen Ashworth is back with a vengeance, after taking the last two years off. Early this year saw the release of "Advance Base Battery Life", a collection of rarities and B-sides spanning the bulk of his career. Now finally we have "Vs. Children", the follow-up to his 2006 LP "Etiquette". "Vs. Children" is his 5th full length release on Tomlab, and shows continuing growth and maturity to his sound. All but gone are fuzzed-to-hell keyboards and lo-fi drum machines. While both still play a part of his sound, the final production feels polished and much more clean. Drums don't have the glitchy aesthetic of his early work and the Casio that is his name sake is now supplemented with piano, guitar and a variety of other more.... ahem "traditional instruments.
While the album, like "Etiquette" has a much more polished and organic sound, nothing has changed in his lyrics. Always his strong suit, Ashworth deals out another half an hour's worth of snapshots, dealing with the pains or tribulations of being an early teenager and someone in their early 20s. However, unlike on his previous efforts, this album seems to have more of a unifying theme. From the first track (not counting a brief instrumental introduction) "Tom Justice, The Choir Boy Robber, Apprehended at Ace Hardware in Libertyville, IL" the life of crime is the theme that dominated the album's 32 minutes. Bonnie and Clyde style love and larceny seem to be on his mind, and Ashworth effectively adds his trade mark angst into each small tale. The album does slow down a little in the middle, a problem that "Etiquette" also had for me, but is overall another strong outing. Casiotone for the Painfully Alone's dry miserable voice and funky while always depressing melodies make for another compelling yet slightly inconsistent effort. The album comes out on April 7th on both CD and vinyl via Tomlab. He is currently touring Europe and has a slew of US dates booked already.
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