In Conflict review – Owen Pallett's grasp of melodies rarely disappoints

A singer, string arranger and composer, whose score (alongside Arcade Fire's Will Butler) for Spike Jonze's Her was nominated for an Oscar, Owen Pallett is equally comfortable in the worlds of baroque pop and classical. His fourth album emphasises his fluidity, its complex arrangements and Pallett's choirboy voice placing him somewhere between Arthur Russell and a less hysterical Rufus Wainwright. Chorale and the title track are brilliantly skew-whiff and, though Pallett is guilty of trying too hard to impress ("Even as a child you felt the terror of the infinite," begins Song for Five & Six), the Canadian's melodies seldom disappoint.