Skeletal Lamping
of Montreal
Score:58
Reviewer: Ed Butler
Label: Polyvinyl (USA & UK), Popfrenzy (Australia)
Reviewed: Sep 18th '08, Released:2008
Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?, of Montreal's 2006 excursion into schizophrenic electro-pop, was singer Kevin Barnes' attempt at some kind of personal exorcism. A symphony in two movements, punctuated by the epically cathartic 'The Past is a Grotesque Animal', it told a tale of a man moving from an unhappy relationship and morphing into the creation of 'Georgie Fruit', a tall black transsexual, blazing an erotically liberated path across dancefloors the land over.
In reflecting this, the music shifted emphasis, from sunny pop to sleazy funk, with the central track a thunderous dirge of apotheosis. After such a cataclysmic change, Barnes' sleazier side seems to have won out. Skeletal Lamping, the new effort, is positively dripping in the sweat of innumerable, anonymous sexual encounters.
But while that is occasionally a strength, it often becomes a weakness. Perhaps this is the musing of a more conservative soul than those open-minded kids in the band, but it is difficult to associate with such a wild fantasia that Barnes concocts. Non-stop tales of sexual deviance and depravity can be tiring, but probably liberating for those writing the stories.
Not only is the record occasionally overwhelming in its unrelenting sexuality, but it can be tiring in its sheer length. At 15 songs, Skeletal Lamping would be an ordeal if written by less challenging artists. In the hands of of Montreal, though, 58 minutes is an almost physical trial.
This challenge is somewhat alleviated not only by Kevin Barnes’ sheer talent for writing unbelievably catchy tracks, or failing that, moments of brilliance in amongst songs that spend the best part of five minutes looking for inspiration in various dark corners.
While of Montreal stand a world apart from their contemporaries, and remain idiosyncratic to the last, their relentless embrace of their own uniqueness is both strength and flaw. There is little doubt that die-hards will embrace it with equal vigour, but those who occasionally flirt with Barnes and co’s experimentalism may find Skeletal Lamping somewhat less satisfying than its predecessor, more challenging, yet less rewarding.
