Results tagged “mellowowl”

It’d be nice to say Mellow Owl is a marvelous piece of work signaling a return to big picture viability for today’s somewhat uninspiring folk genre. But, regrettably, a cutesy clever band name does not a savior make, so Peter and the Wolf will have to do as a somewhat-paler parallel to Bowerbirds or Bonnie “Prince” Billy, because where those acts are either, A. musically large and engaging, or B. sensible and wise, Mellow Owl too often suffers from neither, resulting in a thin take on folk that even lovely bouts of classical guitar and earnestness cannot cure. But beyond the album’s general lack of virtuosity, perhaps the number one problem here is too much juvenilia, as mentions of booze and dope happen more often than is appealing, and in contexts far too romantic for this truly to seem like the work of a fully-wrought artist. And while that romance occasionally results in a genuine and captivating vigor, too often the result is a sort of melancholic staggering.