Of Montreal - Skeletal Lamping (10/7)

Quite a schizophrenic album.
"Gallery Piece" will be my "on repeat, ad infinitum" song for quite a while. And will probably induce some extremely embarrassing bedroom dancing at some point.

I appreciate the selfcontrol though.. I could have been rescuing babies from a burning hospital and if someone told me this leaked, I'd have ran to my computer and click click click.

It's a sad state of affairs when a thread about new Metallica has 200+ replies and this one has 2.
Not an uncommon or unexpected state of affairs, though.

"Gallery Piece", "An Eluardian Instance", "Triphallus, to Punctuate", "Plastis Wafers", etc... I kinda love this album. And I'm so into the awkward transitions and jumps and overall offbeat nature of the whole people.

More should check it out.

I've listened to it twice through, and I can't decide how I feel about it. I love Hissing Fauna, but am pretty lukewarm on a lot of the earlier stuff, so it's nice to hear the sound of that album evolve.

But I'm never sure what to initially make of albums like this that seemingly give up on song form entirely and just go with the flow, eschewing choruses and any other repeated musical ideas. They can run the gamut from meticulously constructed and artful to lazy, undisciplined tinkering. Given the care that Barnes seems to have taken in arranging these songs and the fact that the lyrical subject matter unifies things a bit, I'd lean toward the former. But it's a lot to digest.

Fuck me, I'll go check this out!

If DaveB needs a minute then you can bet it'll be a little while before I have anything to add. I was at first overwhelmed with Hissing Fauna by what I initially perceived to be a winking, annoying preciousness in the arrangements; it took awhile for the darker themes and tones to come through for me and validate the catchy, bubbly surface. Sounds like this may be a similar journey.

I've never paid much attention to this band until I heard one of their songs on the radio this morning. Did Outback Steakhouse rip them off, or did they change their own song to become the jingle?

They sold the song (or maybe just the melody, if that's possible) to Outback. Outback's advertisers rewrote it and had some session guys record it.

I'm not sure what the long-term benefits were for either participant (aside from some cash on Of Montreal's side), since few would seek out Of Montreal on the basis of a song that doesn't even have the same lyrics, and few potential Outback diners are going to say, "Hey, I love indie bands like Of Montreal - let's get a steak at the big chain place!!!" Outback probably could have saved some money by writing a jingle themselves.

I know my response was "Why are they playing a commercial, this is satellite radio...wait, they don't have australian accents...."

I can definitely see how this album might not be immediately satisfying for some people, but I'd seriously encourage people to at least give it an honest shot.

It's really not as great as Hissing Fauna, but it's better than their earlier stuff, which DaveB warned me about. I'll need to see how it gel over the next 2 weeks or so, but the catchiness of the previous album is not there.

I still don't understand why some of their early albums are viewed as inferior. I believe Dave says it's because the lyrics aren't as dark....(and I'd argue that's not true, at least not on all of The Sunlandic Twins). But why is that a criteria for quality? Satanic Panic in the Attic and Sunlandic Twins are great pop albums. They may not be as good as Hissing Fauna, but that doesn't mean they're not worth of listening or discussion.

My problem isn't that the lyrics aren't dark - it's that they're not as good. There's not a lot to latch on to. Which wouldn't be a problem, necessarily, because a lot of bands I love aren't known for super-specific lyrics, but their music doesn't make up for it. Sunlandic Twins is mostly sort of boring. There are a few good hooks, mostly at the beginning of the album, but they're not enough to sustain the whole thing.

I've warmed up a little on Aldhils Arboretum, and I guess I should give Satanic Panic another listen, but, generally speaking, I just find the bunch to be pretty spotty compared to Hissing Fauna, which is consistently excellent. The new one, frenetic and choppy as it is, is definitely more in line with that kind of songwriting. And the lyrics aren't nearly as dark as on Hissing Fauna (and they're probably twice as funny), so it's not as if I'm the guy who's arguing for more sex and gore in the new Disney movie or something.

"Over a sea of grief, Scarlet died
above her dying mind were fossilfied memory imprints of her favorite day.
For a minute I stayed watching this brilliant display,
until a god with a broom came and swept them away"

You may not care for those lyrics, but can you really call them boring? Or are you speaking strictly from a musical standpoint?

At the very least, they're interesting to interpet...which puts them far ahead of your standard pop and alt. fare. Are they good as Hissing Fauna? No, not as consistant, but I don't understand why that means they should be dismissed.

Even a line like "We made love like a pair of black wizzards, you freed me from the past, you fucked the suburbs out of me" is on par with what's on Hissing Fauna.

Satanic Panic is more of a lighter album with lighter lyrics, but I love the wordplay and don't consider the lyrics bad, just less personal. (For your consideration: My British Tour Diary: )

"On our trip to England I noticed something obscene
People still actually give a shit about the Queen
Though London girls aren't snobs at all
and Brighton's lovely in the Fall
Left alone to drive ourselves on the opposite side
Man it was a miracle that nobody died
Hanging out with Steven Drew, Theo,
Paul and Sorrel too
Eating at Welcome Breaks daily
We danced in Leeds with Brit Pop Haley

Performing with the Apples
and then crashing at the Wrights
Bitching because Steven booked us
on such early flights
Always in a foggy haze
because we hadn't slept for days
Every single one of our London cabbies played
The most truly repellent techno music ever made
But they'll drop you without hesitation if you try changing the station

Up to our necks in crisps and litter
in the van we dubbed the Gary Glitter"

Regardless, I hear where you're coming from Dave, but I respectully disagree.

Satanic Panic got me into of Montreal, so count me as a supporter... really though, I can see how for certain type of people Hissing Fauna is a "fluke", and they can find themselves liking it "in spite" of, well, of Montreal.