New CD shakes it up

Appeared in The Daily Collegian on October 14th, 2008.

Kevin Barnes, Of Montreal's frontman, probably never played with geometric shaped blocks as a child - fitting a wooden triangle block into a triangle shaped hole would've been far too boring for him.

In the world of this Athens, Ga., bred band, music isn't designed to fit into any space. It's conjured to stand alone, be speculating and provoking - for better or for worse.

"Skeletal Lamping" is Of Montreal's latest album, which has a philosophy that goes against the grain of all art that "works," as Barnes said.

The goal for this album was to surpass the weirdness of the band's last success, "Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?" Of Montreal's most ingrained virtue is to surprise and create mild confusion amongst its listeners. Shock value is the band's ultimate value.

"Skeletal Lamping" is not designed for the passive listener. The album demands a change in perception of how an album is supposed to be constructed. Its 15 songs often run into each other, which makes the album seem more like a single composition rather than a collection of separate tracks.

"Hissing Fauna" was a real foreshadower for this new album, with unknown transitions from song to song. Both albums are like run-on sentences that leap from topic to topic; punctuation is used sparingly and erratically from start to end.

It is evident that Of Montreal wants to bring back the concept of the "album" - a trend that currently eludes popular music due to the iTunes single download age. This new effort highlights the shift back in time when people actually purchased CDs.

The stream-of-consciousness in "Skeletal Lamping" is maddening. Barnes' complex psyche is exposed in lights all over the spectrum. It is incredibly moody and unpredictable, initially making it tough to warm up to. If "Skeletal Lamping" is a parallel of Barnes' mind, someone please call a shrink.

What does "lamping" mean in the album's title anyhow? It's a hunting technique in which hunters enter the forest at night, flood an area with light, then shoot or capture animals as they run in panic from their hiding places. The end result is a mixture of intriguing things.

Humor is blended with apprehension on the track, "Women's Studies Victims," which speaks about the experiences between a boy and a bitter feminist, but opens with spooky electronic beats that could be in a thriller movie.

For the 11 years Of Montreal has existed, elements of pop have always been in the band's music. Though chaotic at some points, "Triphallus, To Punctuate!" has an infectious chorus that can beat any rays of sunlight with its jovial synth keyboards and uptempo percussion.

"An Eluardian Instance" is another tune that keeps the pop sound alive. This is achieved by a brilliant trumpet which carries the melody and the repetition of the lyrics: "Do you remember our last summer as independents?" As a means of harmonizing, Barnes uses himself as his own backup singer.

Barnes is a free spirit as he indulgently bends notes from beginning to end. He also likes to incorporate off-kilter shrieks and reverb, a tool that gives "Skeletal Lamping" a cosmic feel. Lyrically, "Skeletal Lamping" is borderline sleazy. Barnes is overtly sexual as he sings lyrics like, "We can do it soft core, if you want, but you should know I do it both ways." Salacious banter pops up everywhere on this, at times, horny album.

Because Barnes gives himself freedom to do as he pleases on the microphone, he is often caught in falsetto. On "St. Exquisite's Confessions," Barnes uses soul power and idiosyncrasies to emulate Beck during his "Midnite Vultures" era.

The album is a schizophrenic mess through its abrupt fragments, songs within songs, shifts in moods, outer space productions, gender bending, and ego-tripping.

But underneath it all, Of Montreal's peculiar essence still lingers through and through.