Owen

There’s just something in the Kinsella gene pool that breeds prolificacy. Big brother Tim Kinsella might get more of the spotlight from his time in Cap’n Jazz, and Make Believe with cousin Nate drumming, but Mike Kinsella is no slouch himself. As frontman of the tender but short-lived Urbana band American Football, he crafted vulnerable but not spineless emo-rock that some could argue served as the template for Death Cab For Cutie, were it not for both bands forming in 1997. Since the dissolving of AF, Kinsella has been fronting the similarly mellow Owen, whose fifth album, 2009’s New Leaves, meditates on fatherhood and the acceptance of change. His new album, Ghost Town, is simultaneously lush and delicate, sitting nicely on the border of intimacy and oversharing.

Updated 11/02/2011