You may have heard Kris Orlowski play at Oxfam’s Oxjam last week. That’s where I first heard of him, took an interest, and then gave his latest album a shot. The first track on the album, “Something’s Missing” is as close to country as I will likely ever admit to liking. To be honest, it really is more folk than anything, but there are a few country twang vibes on this record that don’t resonate with me how I usually like them to. “Walking in My Sleep” is the next entry on the album and it takes a turn into a tone that is reminiscent of vanilla Christian rock. This is the kind of music you’d assume to hear on the radio: it’s clean, characteristically millennial, and has all the necessary things in all the right places. What I’m trying to say is, you haven’t heard this before but you will feel like you have. Orlowski takes on a bit of a John Mayer vibe at times, though thematically he is less about cracking a beer on the front porch and traipsing through the wonderland of his partner’s body. As I was listening to Often in the Pause someone overheard the intro to “Enough” and mistook it for Carly Rae Jepsen — the characteristic “millennial whoop” is there. (If you don’t know what that is, Google it, there’s a great little video on it by Quartz.) This album makes for great background music for studying, and if you give it time has plenty of interesting ideas to think on. Orlowski shifts in tone throughout the album, moving from melancholy, to delicate, then on to beauty. Orlowski exercises his excellent vocal range and each song has elaborate production. Often in the Pause is more than just singer-songwriter and folky vibes, but it lacks the steam to be something that is unique and distinguishable from much of the other empty, millennial indie that is floating through the airwaves at this point in time.
