Christopher Owens :: “I Wanna Run Barefoot Through Your Hair” - True Panther Records
A veteran of the highly influential and iconic outfit Girls, Christopher Owens’ return to music is possibly one of the most highly regarded, culturally celebrated, and enigmatic ecstacies in contemporary sound and lyrical languish of his generation. Even though the systems that we rely on in this collapsing country continue to fail us day after day, year after year, the fundamental focus and critical community support are making giant leaps into the braved storms of mental health and non-traditional therapy. While so many artists of past decades experienced the total annihilation of the soul and heart due to the numerous elements found in the creative circles that discriminate against no one, the narrative is often romanticized to the point of no return. The sacrifices transcend compromise, relationships, and ultimate connection while leaving the body battered and broken, with nothing left to show but sonic scars stretching from one end of space to the other. Owens has single-handedly survived his own life and the complex callings that have cast him into the fabulous flames of near-death design and prophetic purgatory. Pulling him through multiple dimensions of trepidatious torment and disembodied duality, he’s finally back where he belongs with a lovely new body of work that eagerly reflects the visceral volumes and cosmic complications of existence like nothing he’s ever released before.
While most would argue, and rightfully so, that all music is personal, no matter the angle or poetic preparation, then there’s 2024’s “I Wanna Run Barefoot Through Your Hair.” The ultimate exception of absolute transcendence and melodic manifestation that desperately echoes the dance of life more like literature and cinema than just the mere simplicity of music alone. Picking up where he left off with 2015’s “Chrissybaby Forever,” this material is from a meticulous manifestation based on superior survival, and songwriting represents the vulnerable vocabulary that tells the ultimate tales of truth and temptation. All we have to do is listen, while others have to live it. With tracks such as “I Think About Heaven,” “This Is My Guitar,” “Two Words,” and the album’s flawless ender “Do You Need A Friend,” “I Wanna Run Barefoot Through Your Hair” bends the fragile fibers of the delicate human condition in a way that melodically mirrors masterful albums like Dylan’s “Blood On The Tracks,” Van Morrison’s “Astral Weeks,” and Cohen’s “New Skin for the Old Ceremony.” An epic journey in poetic perseverance and justified juxtaposition, Owens carves a way through the valley of volcanic velocity and leaves everything at its smoldering base of pulverized stone and geodes of genius.
Owens expresses the endless isolation of intricate ideology and the tonal temperature of monumental mortality that is both gorgeous and grounding. With elements and topics such as the devastating passing of his former Girls bandmate Chet “JR” White, the finality with his fiancée, a serious injury from a motorcycle accident, and, to top it all off, the musician ended up homeless, living out of his car after being fired from his coffee shop when music wasn’t enough to pay the bills, he broke the curse pushing forward in such a way that fans, both new and old, will continue to unlock for inspiration generation after generation. Everyone has a rock bottom, and while it looks different from person to person, the complex course(s) reveal the dynamic demons we all carry on our backs until the whispering weight is too heavy to continue carrying and collapses under its sophisticated shadow. Owens has reincarnated himself, and this album is the ultimate testament to his strength, love, and unfathomable faith in life and the people who gracefully occupy it while keeping him grounded and in constant connection to what matters most.