aaamusic | On 28, Nov 2011

Owen Franklin is a Bristol-based songwriter whose 3-track EP Film Noir demonstrates a truly cinematic view of storytelling. One example would be the way Danse Macabre juxtaposes instrumentation and has it all swirl around you like a character’s (in this case, a naive boy thinking he’s got chances with a femme fatale) experiences unfolding before you. Teetotal (says it all about the story being told here) is slightly less outlandish, but still showcases some key points in Owen Franklin – playfulness, stories of self-deprecation, an ear for an aphorism (“If you can’t drink responsibly it’s fair to say that probably you shouldn’t really drink at all”, “I wish that our society would favour more sobriety”), and a love for a solo (whether it’s a swift splash of guitar or a Badly-Drawn-Boyish piano phrase). Going Home hits a relatively unexpected quieter note, discussing the possibility of having gotten everything wrong before winking us goodbye with what appears to be – and can be nothing but – an ending-credit theme to a light hearted comedy.

So it looks as if this, for once, is a case of aptly-titled release: there is a definite ‘film’ element to all this, what with the amount of stories being told in the space of just these three songs – and since this EP is only a ‘preview’ of an LP due next year, Franklin sounds all set to complete this picture with a whole lot of other eccentricities. We’re not gonna call this a ‘concept’ album but there is definitely a masterplan – a master theme if you will – behind it. Then, the ‘noir’ part… dark humour is the key to all of these tales. This is an entertaining, bold world of miseries faced with the one healthy response it can get – irony.

 

Chiara Amoretti