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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A more mature Of Montreal, but still retaining their Vaudeville charm, 15 Jan 2008
This comes as something as a surprise. I've been loving and loathing Of Montreal on and off for a while now, but then they go and do something like this and it throws me off completely. The whimsy is toned down considerably, bar `Heimdalsgate Like A Promethean Curse', which uses the best bits of 2005's The Sunlandic Twins, but it's all a long way from songs like, `Let's Do Everything For The First Time Forever'. And what's Of Montreal without all of the silliness? Well `The Past Is A Grotesque Animal'is a good place to start, a twelve minute masterpiece with minimal changes of direction, which I would have to say sounds a little dull written down like that, especially given that changes of structure is what makes Of Montreal so likable/hateable in the first place. But like the equally epic LCD Soundsystem `All My Friends' track, Kevin Barnes uses the repetitive beats to deliver his most personal lyrics yet in his most straight-faced (albeit somewhat tongue-in-cheek) manner. Although the grandeur of that track seems to dominate the album (how could it not given the length), the other songs also show a development in songwriting for Barnes and Of Montreal, the Vaudeville charm is still there, but I get the sense that it's slowly beginning to crumble and reveal a band who are finally so comfortable with one another, that the songs have become mini-stories in their own right. Take both `Bunny Ain't No Kind of Rider' and `She's a Rejector' - every change of pace reflects the shifting tone of Barnes's storytelling lyrics, further heightening their evocative nature and providing the perfect setting in which such actions can take place.
Highlights: Suffer For Fashion, The Past is a Grotesque Animal, Bunny Ain't No Kind of Rider
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10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Suffer for fashion, 4 Feb 2007
Of Montreal has been diddling around with the poppy dance sound for a few albums now, as opposed to the bright tweepop of their early work.
And they're in excellent form with the sprightly pop tunes of "Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?", where they try out all sorts of driving, lush pop music, full of bizarre flourishes and mad instrumentation. It's like being locked in a musical rainforest, if that makes any sense.
It opens with a baby babbling and a guitar being plucked. Then the fuzz starts. Finally the energetic dancey riff kicks in, with Kevin Barnes singing merrily, "We just suffer for fashion, oh whatever!/We don't want these days to ever end/we just want to EM-AS-CULE-ATE them, foreevvveerrrr..." I don't know what it means, but it sounds funny.
After a foghorn-poppish interlude, the band segues smoothly into the less dancey "Cato as a Pun," with its gongs and odd undulating riffs, and the hilarious "Heimdalsgate Like a Promethean Curse," with a playful keyboard melody and cries of "Come on, chemicals!"
The band tries out all sorts of weird electropop through this album: twee stuffwith handclaps and falsetto voices, trippy pop, sharp-edged psychpunk, rollicking electronic dance mixed with weird samples and screams, and a driving twelve-minute song climaxing with great blobs of wavery synth.
"Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?" is not Of Montreal's best -- artistically, it's a bit scattered, and some of the songs take several listens before you start liking them. But it's definitely a good album, full of colour, life and heartbreak, and lots of inspired indiepop that will have you bouncing in your seat.
In fact, that's what these people do best -- bouncy indie music, and spun out mostly from driving guitar that occasionally turns into pure punk, and waves of sparkling, colourful synth. Those are backed by fuzzy bass, bells, sharp percussion, handclaps and what sounds like a xylophone -- it sounds like Of Montreal was having some kind of psychedelic experience out on the dance floor. No wonder I love it.
Despite the perkiness of the music, Kevin Barnes sounds kind of depressed about his love life, which pushes aside some of Of Montreal's typically weird lyrics. In his slightly offbeat voice, he sings that "I need a lover with SOUL POWER/and you ain't got no soul power." Not to mention "a rejector" that he has to protect himself from. He expresses a wish to hire some other girl to "walk up and hit her," but then shrieks, "but I can't I can't I CAN'T!" Calm thyself, Kevin.
"Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer" not only wins for weirdest title of the year, but it's a fun, charming and slightly bittersweet little album. Definitely worth listening to.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Of Montreal- Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? Review (8/10), 5 Oct 2007
`Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer' is the 8th album by `Of Montreal' i.e. Kevin Barnes, who is responsible for this remarkable one-man operation. This concept album, released whilst Barnes was on anti-depressants, was developed with assistance from friends and family including James Huggins, (the Late B.P. Helium), Nina Twin (Barnes' wife), Heather McIntosh, Georgie Fruit (a glam rock alter-ego of Barnes), and Alabee Blonde (Barnes' daughter). The stunning packaging and art-work which adorns the album (and all `Of Montreal' releases) is the work of Barnes brother, David Barnes.
`Hissing Fauna.....' is an album of two parts with the meandering 12min dark-electro pop epic, `The Past Is a Grotesque Animal' being the transformation were Barnes marks his change into Georgie Fruit. The albums first part was developed by Barnes after spending time alone in Norway in which he went through an intense depression. Instead of channelling this into his music, Barnes "tried to uplift (his) life with sound" and this is plain to see in the unfettered pomp and swagger which forms the backbone of the album.
As with previous releases, `Of Montreal' cover an impressive spectrum of styles, moods and genres, both instrumentally and vocally. These range from the high-tempo sixties influenced rollercoaster of the opener `Suffer for Fashion', the subtle Scandinavian-IDM influence of `Cato as a Pun' right through to the neo-funk grooves and falsetto vocals of `Gronlandic Edit'. Elsewhere, listeners are treated to the refreshing anti-scenester stance of `Bunny Ain't No Kind of Rider' and the brilliantly arranged and unhinged jazz-funk of `Faberge Falls For Shuggie' which is brimming with a Prince-esque sexual swagger, a theme that is continued into the appropriately titled follow-up `Labyrinthian Pomp'. What `Of Montreal' do so brilliantly is that they interlace a wide range of styles and influences into one track with unrestricted ease, rapidly covering territories as diverse as 80's synth pop, 60's acid rock, 00's indie-punk and 70's funk. In addition to the diverse instrumental tapestry, Barnes lays his heart on the line throughout the album, addressing personal issues such as family, self-improvement, love, belonging and religion.
As with previous releases, tracks are not separated and thus crash into each other to create a wonderful sense of continuity and therefore, give the impression of immediate `switches'. `Hissing Fauna...' is a multi-dimensional and skilfully arranged piece of art that is brimming to the rim with ideas. Furthermore, it is lavishly produced and the continuous interlacing of styles injects longevity which makes this an album that will sound different every time you hear it.
For fans of: Elephant Six, TV on the Radio, Arctic Monkey's, Grandaddy, Belle & Sebastian, Prince, Stereolab, (I told you it was diverse)
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