Inspector Owl
By user • Feb 1st, 2007 • Category: Band Bios
Chicago’s Inspector Owl is either a little late for two current waves of experimentation or just in time to combine them. Since 2004, the ensemble has penned sweeping tunes a la The Secret Machines. Frontman Corey Wills uses palatable electronic undertones to make either atmospherically somber or undeniably danceable soundscapes. And depending on which, his tunes can subtly accent or clearly define a moment. But after a recent line-up change — including the addition of a violin player and a keyboard/horn multi-instrumentalist — Wills and his comrades seem poised to follow in the Arcade Fire’s brand of baroque chamber pop. Yet this quintet is at its best when fusing elements of these two phases. Keeping the theatrically long reach of those space-rock anthems while embracing the lush, more human element of the current cast allows Wills’ guitar rock stories to fall somewhere between the soil of Earth’s lithosphere and the stars of its mesosphere — which is right where they belong.
Chicago Innerview Magazine, February 2007
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