Of Montreal - SkeletalLamping

Mon 17th Nov, 2008 in Music Reviews

Before you jump down the aural rabbit hole that is Of Montreal’s Skeletal Lamping, you might want to spend some time with the CD jacket…just so you know what you’re getting yourself into. This isn’t a straightforward, plastic gate-fold number that serves the practical purpose of safely housing your shiny silver disc.

Skeletal Lamping sits at the heart of an intricate series of folds and pleats that open out to reveal some sort of pagan acid nightmare. Hyper-coloured flora and fauna meshed together as a giant Venus Fly-Trap with multiple bloody mouths. In its midst, Adam and Eve figures battle flesh-hungry vines and three deer stacked on top of each other that are either dead or copulating. Odds are this isn’t an album that intends to play nicely in the middle-of-the-road.

Not that the quietly pedestrian is ever something Of Montreal, or specifically frontman Kevin Barnes, has ever really dabbled in. Previous release Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? had plenty of pop moments, but when slathered in the bleak imagery drawn from Barnes’ fragile mental disposition, they were never really intended to woo the mainstream.

Although Skeletal Lamping dispenses with Hissing Fauna’s preoccupation with trauma and depression, the album is still hard-wired to the brain of Kevin Barnes. It plays like a personification of his stream-of-consciousness; jumping from one mode to the next in a manner that should have all the cohesiveness of a three-car shunt.

Nonpareil of Favour opens with a techno beat, splices it with the operatic harmonies of ELO before slipping into late-era Beatles and rounding it all off with a barrage of distorted guitars. Death is not a Parallel Move is one third cold-blooded electro, two thirds gentle acoustic meanderings. Trust me, these multi-headed beasts might sound pretty abhorrent, but underneath Frankenstein’s skin beats a soft accessible heart made of pure pop. These creations have been stitched together with love and care, not a desire to create novelty for novelty’s sake.

Musically it might be a bit of a slippery fish, but its genre hopping makes plenty of allowances for those who just want to dance. Wicked Wisdom has all of Prince’s funky strut (with a dose of camp bitchiness thrown in for good measure), Gallery Piece is pure disco froth and For Our Elegant Caste’s frenetic hand-clapping introduces the album’s overwhelming obsession with sex: “We can do it soft-core if you want, but you should know I do it both ways”.

From start to finish there’s an urgency that causes the songs to slam into each other. However, there is the odd moment that allows you to catch your breath. Touched Something’s Hollow has a solitary piano that pinpoints Barnes’ melancholy, as he asks, “Why am I such poisoned goods, I don’t know how long I can hold on if it’s gonna be like this forever.” But it’s a brief respite; the introspection is dropped like a hot potato when An Eludian Instance rudely barges in with its easy breezy drums and cheerful brass, abruptly calling time on the sombre stuff.

For all its musical ambition and clever artwork, the album is ultimately an eye-popping excursion into the realm of Kevin Barnes’ uninhibited genius. His creative excesses may frustrate those who like to file their music under neat classifications, but Skeletal Lamping’s only real drawback is that everything you hear after it may seem frighteningly dull.

Skeletal Lamping is out now on Popfrenzy Records. Of Montreal play the Perth International Arts Festival and Golden Plains in 2009.