Why not? Of Montreal's always good for a roll in the hay.
10th! Can you believe this is the 10th Of Montreal album? Honestly, they've started to blur together for me, with a lot of the same disco/synth/omgwtf sounds, the same swervey structures, the same batshit harmonies. On one hand, that's unfair. All of Kevin Barnes's albums are wildly different and unpredictable, all sound quite different on a per-song basis, so how can I say they all sound the same? On the other hand, that's the price of being wildly different, eventually it all becomes noise. Look at enough Pollocks and it's all just more squiggles - the effect is numbing.
The other numbing aspect of the Of Montreal oeuvre is the lyrical content. I understand that this is supposed to be the R&B album, and there are moments of Mayfield/Gaye heartache and pathos, but that well has already been drunk pretty dry by Barnes. Frankly, sometime halfway through The Past is a Grotesque Animal, Hissing Fauna's 12 minute temper tantrum centerpiece, I stopped having a lot of sympathy for the boy's wounded heart. By now, his grasping and hurting and highs and lows are just getting wearying, like that friend who's always having another tearful breakup.
It's a shame, because there are brilliant flashes. The rising flourishes and vocal interplays of Enemy Gene, the glinty outro of Our Riotous Defects, and the bent, jaunty bliss of Sex Karma. I really like a lot of what's going on here, but I'm worn out. I love you Kevin, but I can't keep doing this 3/5
You might like this if: you like angular, adventurous, insane, catchy pop, and haven't already burned out on the Of Montreal sound
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