Indie-rock pin-up Christopher Owens’ decision to make his second solo album, A New Testament, in the country-gospel style seems strange. But then, to a man of such stranger-than-fiction biography – Owens grew up travelling the world in a hippie religious cult, lived his 20s under the patronage of a Texas oil tycoon and alleged child abuser, and found fame as frontman of the band Girls and as a fashion model, while struggling with heroin addiction – making a country-gospel album probably doesn’t feel that strange at all.
With a robust four-piece band and two big-voiced backing singers , Owens’ soft tenor is all but drowned out at first, visibly discomfiting a guy who – rakishly thin in stonewashed jeans and fringed suede vest, peering out sheepishly through blonde chin-length hair – would come across as the overgrown little boy lost under most circumstances. Another shriek of feedback from his microphone, and you wonder if Owens might just drop his Rickenbacker and run out of the door crying.
But once the sound is balanced, these disarmingly earnest and pure songs are easy to admire, between cosily familiar chord progressions, warm licks of Hammond organ and guitarist John Anderson’s slick soloing. The likes of Never Wanna See That Look Again and the Teenage Fanclub-esque Oh My Love – exploring themes of romantic and familial love, spirituality and a search for inner peace – make perfect sense among numerous selections from Girls’ two albums of similarly emotionally dense, yet stylistically unburdened songwriting (Owens’ debut solo album, Lysandre, is ignored).
Even if Owens never quite relaxes – he barely shares a mumbled word between songs – his backing singers enjoy themselves enough for everyone, all full-beam smiles and exuberant dancing. It’s Girls numbers that leave the most lasting impression – the John Lennon-indebted Love Like a River, and an almighty Hellhole Ratrace especially – but A New Testament bears songs of undoubted praise.
• At Colston Hall, Bristol, 18 November (0844 887 1500), Islington Assembly Hall, London, 19 November (020-7527 8900). Details: christopherowensonline.com.
