Earlier this year musician/rapper Dylan Owen released his latest album Keep Your Friends Close, I’ll Always With Mine (Fake Four, Inc.). Within the 14-track release, it’s filled with uptempo rhythms & melody, and melancholic lyricism. Sturdy juxtapositions from beginning to end. An album that’s rife with memorable, bouncy beats, it’s clear that musically Owen bridges the gap between indie pop and Hip-Hop. “Ghosts Revisited (feat. Kiah Victoria)” is an emotional journey, which appears in a different version here as well while “In The Corner (feat. Kinetics)” brims with melancholia from every aspect. Although it’s “Gardens Of The Angels” where Owen not only wears his heart on his sleeve but also takes ink and pen to it to give a clear explanation of it.
Originally, the album was released on digital formats, but that’s all changed now that the album has just been offered in vinyl which of course offers much warmer tones. Owen is clear as he shares the clear intent of the release itself.
“Keep Your Friends Close started out as a mixtape I released for free on the internet to a very small group of supporters and ended up as something way wilder & broader than I ever could have imagined. I recorded it with a lot of beautiful strangers in snowy Ithaca NY and in New York City, mostly in makeshift mic-to-laptop studio setups in people’s apartments. Had a lot of thoughts about what it means to let phases of your life go & to move on entirely while I was making this. It was a bittersweet time for me. I never planned to write this chapter in my discography – I thought I’d simply write about the next phase of growing up. But this is what felt honest and true and somehow still carries the same weight for me when I perform it play or hear songs from it online. If I had any advice for a younger me, it’d be that when you let things go, let them go for good. That starts today with this album and I’m glad we get to send it off with a smile & a proper vinyl press thanks to my Fake Four family.
Grand larceny you stole my damn heart from me. Much love & I hope you love my album,
– Dylan
Social Media