Mare Vitalis, one of the most underrated releases of 2000, is a lot to live up to. Creating a soundscape so narrow in concept, and so wide and dimensional within it, is an admirable (to say the least) task, and Mare Vitalis nailed it. It proposed a mission statement, went about it, and told a million heavenly stories of creation, departure, sailing for years that seem like minutes, and arrival at a port where everything yearns to return to the sea for another second or two of blissful transcendence.
How do you live up to that? How do you make a record that will evoke grandeur again? I guess you make a bigger record, or one in two parts, as the case is with Low Level Owl, which is composed of twenty-two songs split into volumes 1 and 2.
Recorded with Ed Rose at the Red House Studio, the Cast twiddled with everything from sleigh bells to organ and piano, and of course striking guitar tones, which are always the highlight of a Cast song (and if anyone makes good use of all the different pedals out there, it's the Cast). And built on top of 'wide' drums and matching bass lines, the songs on Volume 1 noodle away at the expected progressions. That is the potential detractor on this record — that at least the first half of the songs are too predictable at times. Maybe it is just too hard to escape Mare Vitalis. When something goes that right, I suppose it is easy to just repeat the recipe. That isn't to say that all the songs are carbon copies of Mare Vitalis counterparts; it is just to say that expectations for a made-from-scratch composition were a bit naïve.
But then again, songs later in the record, like "Mile Marker" and "Convict," capture their own earthy (yet ethereal — always with the ethereal) identity, so if one wanted to assert that Low Level Owl merely picks up the trail end of Mare Vitalis' voyage, and then carries it onto land for a terra firma continuation of the bigger journey, they would probably make a strong case. Either way, the Cast still maintain their status as the last noble flagship of 'emo,' if one still clings to castigating them as such (even though they currently make better company with the Lassie Foundation and Violet Burning than the Promise Ring and Cross My Heart and such), for they are the ones still concerned with writing bigger-than-life songs about the small things in life.
Other coverage for this album
Decapolis 2001Reviewed by Nate BaileyLow Level Owl, Vol. 1 is a concept album in a way. It's more like a classical symphony than anything else. Instead of individual songs, there are movements. Each movement is linked to the next with electronic induced loops, echoes, and instrumentals (many with piano). This is only the first volume, there is a second that follows up where this leaves off, and the whole project is over two hours in…The Phantom Tollbooth 2001Reviewed by Andy ArgyrakisIt's hard to pinpoint a group that can glaze over different musical plains, yet make all of their sounds, as unorthodox as they may be, seem like they fit together. The Appleseed Cast's latest can best be summarized as a melancholy sequence of stunning orchestrations and breathtaking crescendos. They start out with an emo base, but instead of calculating their sounds around that style, the group…The Phantom Tollbooth 2001Reviewed by Ken MuellerLow Level Owl: Volume 1 is the first of two recordings to be released by The Appleseed Cast this year, with Volume 2 coming in the fall. Both discs were recorded at the same time, and Volume 1 shows that one of the top bands in the emo genre is continuing to grow and expand their horizons. Not content to rest on their laurels, the band has added more keyboards, more experimentation, more studio…The Phantom Tollbooth 2001Reviewed by Bert GanglLow Level Owl: Volume I, the third full-length project from the Appleseed Cast, is the first of two entries in a 26-song set from the Lawrence, Kansas-based quartet, with the second volume slated for release in late October of 2001. Like The End of the Ring Wars and Mare Vitalis before it, the latest effort falls broadly into the emo/dream pop section of the modern rock panorama. But where Ring…The Phantom Tollbooth 2001Reviewed by Olin JenkinsThe last time I saw Appleseed Cast in concert, this emo band was very loud, and as I remember them then, holding lots of hope for the world. With Low Level Owl: (Volume 1), Appleseed Cast is almost musically and lyrically subdued. If you like the style of The Juliana Theory at a more sombre sound level, you may enjoy this project. Then again, the lyrics may have you guessing again. Low Level Owl…Similar sounding releases
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