Goodnight Owl “Goodnight Owl” – EP Review

Review: Natalie Salvo
Goodnight Owl started life in a bedroom, graduated to various recording studios and a church in Melbourne, and the result is a folktronica quartet content on blurring the lines between musical genres. Peel away the layers and you have five songs on a self-titled debut EP that have too many ambient noises and electronic beats to be strictly pop, yet also boast too many tender, heartfelt moments to be strictly the former.

The group have been likened to The Postal Service, Sigur Ros, Bon Iver and Band of Horses and they admit their music can take you in one of two directions. Like being faced with a road less travelled, on the one hand there is the promise of the embrace of the dawn while the alternative is an adventure into the dark

For my money I can hear everyone from Jonathan Boulet’s primal and hypnotic bursts of sonic boldness through to the optimistic sheen of Boy & Bear. The result is that some of it is very shiny pop (like The Shins, Cloud Control, etc) while the darker moments appear courtesy of an early Cure songbook. Perhaps one of the best comparisons to the group is with an act like Radiohead because there are many songs that boast the muddled and overblown sonic delights of Kid A while there are also softer pop numbers (think “No Surprises,” “Karma Police,” etc).

Goodnight Owl is a multifaceted diamond in the rock rough where if you look closely you’ll discover more than meets the eye. There are flashes of time as soft as those that come after a candle is extinguished. At other moments the vibe is like a music box being turned ever so gently to produce fuscia flourishes and simple lyrics that make for intricate sound tapestries thanks to the guitar, violin, glockenspiel and tape sounds.
In short, special and scintillating.

Review: Natalie Salvo


GoodnightGoodnight Owl – EP – Goodnight Owl