Of Montreal has a lot of baggage associated with it. I mean that in two ways. First, and most obviously, Kevin Barnes has infused of Montreal with an intense amount of emotion and personal reflection over the last few albums; this album being no exception. Secondly, however, the band of Montreal, itself, has gone through such an evolution over the years that it is almost impossible to write about the band without calling attention to the fact that today's of Montreal is almost a completely different band than the of Montreal of yore.
One could assume that if you're reading this review or listening to this album, you either know enough about of Montreal's past yourself, or it is simply is irrelevant to you. For the sake of giving you an idea where my perspective goes, I will tell you that the pre-Hissing Fauna of Montreal was, at one time, considered to be my favorite band. I will also tell you that while I respected Kevin Barnes' work on both Skeletal Lamping and False Priest, both albums fell flat with me. There's no doubt that there was a lot of amazing work on the album and I most certainly put in a lot of time trying to enjoy those albums. At the end of the day, however, the over-sexed, super-conceptualized adventures of Georgie Fruit left me yearning for another Satanic Panic in the Attic. Or, if nothing else, another Hissing Fauna, You are the Destroyer.
The strangest thing is that if I follow the of Montreal discography, it really does seem as if there was a natural progression to this point - even if I didn't see it at the time. From Coquelicot (probably the last of the "old" style of Montreal albums) through Hissing Fauna and False Priest, you can see the progress being made with each album. Satanic Panic introduced electronic elements and the concept of Kevin doing most of the recording on his own. Sunlandic Twins, especially the latter half, explored darker soundscapes. Hissing Fauna was the moment where of Montreal seemed to fully embrace the small building ideas from the previous albums, all while injecting it with a massive amount of emotion and drama.
In hindsight, though perhaps because of my similar opinion of the two albums, Skeletal Lamping and False Priest each feeling like one half of a bigger concept: the aforementioned sexed-up mutant-pop side project of Kevin Barnes. This feels especially true now that we are listening to the newest of Montreal album: Paralytic Stalks.
Stalks seems to be just as much of a proper follow up to Hissing Fauna as Skeletal Lamping was. Except, where Skeletal Lamping elaborates on the electronic pop, Stalks seems to continue the narrative of Kevin Barnes emotional turmoil. Despite the differences in tone between the two albums, I still find Stalks to be a more true follow up to Hissing Fauna than Lamping. Still, Paralytic Stalks is very much its own beast. And what a beast it is.
In what I can, personally, only describe as a dream come true, Barnes mostly abandons the over-saturated pop for a new sound that sounds unlike anything of Montreal has done before: sometimes dark, sometimes almost menacing and more passionate than he's ever been on album before (and don't forget that we're talking about the same guy who wrote "The Past is a Grotesque Animal." If it took you a few listens to appreciate an of Montreal album in the past, you might want to take a few weeks off of work for this one.
The album starts with "Gelid Ascent," which, with its dark overcast rock tones, certainly helps usher in the new of Montreal sound. Or, rather, it sets the tone for the first half of the album. Similar to Sunlandic Twins, the album splits into two pieces. The first is a bit more straight-forward and closer to the pop/rock spectrum.
This is especially evident in "Spiteful Intervention," one of the best of Montreal songs in years. It's as focused as of Montreal gets on this album, and the sing-song perfection of a chorus like "I made the one I love start crying tonight/and it felt good," would only be possible by Kevin Barnes. This segues into "Dour Percentage," which could almost be mistaken at first for a leftover from False Priest if it weren't for the strong 70s yacht-rock-meets-psychadelica energy that seems to be channeled here.
It's the surprises on this album that are so rewarding: The sinister basslines in "We Will Commit Wolf Murder" once the song takes a slight turn in the dark. The pastoral and almost elegent "Malefic Dowery." The mere 9 tracks of this album, despite its hour length.
The second half of the album is much more complex and multi-faceted than the first half. Starting with the, at times, heavy "Ye, Renew the Plaintiff," no song falls below the 7 minute mark. The songs jump around from genre to genre. There's a lot of noise and distortion.
In fact, "Exorcismic Breeding Knife" may be the hardest pill to swallow on the album. At seven and a half minutes, the last thing you are expecting on a 9 track album is an entire track of obtuse sounds and strange textures that sound anything like music. That's not to say its terrible, but it's easily the most difficult piece to appreciate, especially in group of songs that are hard to appreciate at first listen in the first place.
That said, the biggest complaint that I have against Paralytic Stalks, overall, is the amount of attention and devotion needed to unravel the deeper parts of this album and to fully appreciate it. There is certainly nothing wrong with an album needing repeated listens, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with difficult pop music. However, this album is going to do no favors to fans who have already been on the fence about whether or not to continue embracing the increasingly experimental antics of Kevin Barnes. On that note though, if that's my biggest complaint, there really isn't that wrong with the album.
On first impression, I wasn't feeling it. It really did take me repeated listens to accept it, understand it and enjoy it. It really was an investment though, as now that I've given the album so much attention, I want to listen to it more and more. It's been a long time since I listened to an album that required so much work to appreciate the subtle tones and details that contribute to the bigger picture (I'm thinking, perhaps, Animal Collective's Spirit They're Gone, Spirit They've Vanished). Even now, I hesitate to put a value on just how much I like this album. Is it four stars? An 8/10? Three out of four bullets? All I know is that I like it a lot and that I like it enough to keep listening to it and honing my opinion on it. Perhaps, a few months from now, I'll have a much better idea of where this stands in comparison to the rest of the of Montreal catalog, and perhaps all albums I hold on a higher pedestal.
In the end, isn't it this sense of exploration and depth that we ask of all the music that we hold much higher than the rest? Of Montreal has taken a step out of a spiral that I was truly afraid they weren't going to get out of and back onto into a position among bands whose work I always look forward to and crave more of.
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