Of Montreal

Aureate Gloom is alright, it's just Kevin's misery is starting to grate a little. He's still pretty miserable here but musically it seems much more alive and he keeps threatening to get back to proper melodies again. Either way, I think IR is twice as good

"My Fair Lady" is really nice.

I managed about a song and a half but it was quite enough for me. This guy really needs to step back and consider what he's doing. You can't make music this detailed and release as much material as he does.

i had no idea what to play today so i decided to throw on this new album, Innocence Reaches. the single seemed too forced for me so i didn't know what to expect. the first half didn't grab me but continued to play it. the album seemed to get more and more psychedelic as i went on, very 60s. i think i might actually like this album, looking forward to playing it again in the next few days.

trying to listen to Innocence Reaches. I don't say this about too many albums but this is nigh-unlistenable. It just sounds like a huge mess. Kevin's lyrics are wooden and don't so much as rub-up against the music than barely attempt to work with it. The music itself regularly goes into sections that sound like a mistake that should have been sorted out in the early stages of mixing.

new album White is Relic/Irrealis Mood out March 9 on Polyvinyl

Two important events occurred during the making of White Is Relic/Irrealis Mood. I became “Simulated Reality” paranoid and I fell in LOVE.

Well a lot more happened during the process of writing and recording, but those are the two big ones. I also reached a healthy point of self-forgiveness for my failed marriage and became deeply educated in the lies of America the Great.

I feel like a switch was recently turned on in my brain and now I’m beginning to see through the lies that have been fed to me my whole life by the masters of media and by those who control and manipulate the narrative of our cultural identity and social order.

My paranoia began during the presidential election cycle and reached a dangerous peak shortly after the inauguration. In the meantime I watched and read countless works of art in a mad effort to be reminded of how many truly brilliant people there are living/struggling among us and to try to maintain a positive outlook. The works of Angela Davis, Noam Chomsky, Chris Kraus, Ta-Nehisi Coates, and the Autobiographies of Malcolm X and Mark E Smith were all great inspirations, to name a few.

Musically, I was very inspired by the extended dance mixes that people used to make for pop singles back in the ‘80s. It’s so cool how a lot of the 80’s hits had these really intricate and interesting longer versions that wouldn’t get played on the radio and could only be heard in the clubs. I used that template with these tracks, I wanted them all to feel like the extended “club edit” of album tracks.

I also decided to abandon the “live band in a room” approach that I had been using on the recent albums and work more on my own or remotely with collaborators. I used the same drum sample packs throughout because I wanted the album to have a rhythmic continuity to it. I wanted the drums to have a strong and consistent identity, similar to how Prince’s Linn Electronics LM-1 drum machine played such an important role on his classic albums. Zac Colwell also played a huge role on this album, adding saxophones and synths to most of the songs. I also got a lot of help from long time collaborators, and “of Montreal” touring members, Clayton Rychlik and JoJo Glidewell.

The two title concept came to me when I was thinking about how difficult it is to frame the message of a song with just one title, because so often the songs are about so many different subjects. ‘White Is Relic’ was inspired by James Baldwin’s writings regarding the creation and propagation of a toxic American White identity. I’ve come to learn how it’s just a tool wielded by the 1% to give poor white people a false sense of superiority in an effort to keep the masses placated and numb to how deeply we’re all getting fucked by our capitalist rulers. An ‘Irrealis Mood’ is a linguistic indicator that something isn’t yet reality but does have the potential to become so.

I’m always searching for new identities so this concept of the death of “Whiteness” appeals to me greatly. Might be the only way to save the world.

-Kevin Barnes, January 2018

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuFw4IZWOUE

show i saw last april was fantastic, wasn't really familiar with anything past Skeletal Lamping and the new stuff sounded great. the new song is very much in the vein of that show and the EDM vibe of Rune Husk/Innocence Reaches

Musically, I was very inspired by the extended dance mixes that people used to make for pop singles back in the ‘80s. It’s so cool how a lot of the 80’s hits had these really intricate and interesting longer versions that wouldn’t get played on the radio and could only be heard in the clubs. I used that template with these tracks, I wanted them all to feel like the extended “club edit” of album tracks.

this is p much word for word neil tennant's explanation for how 'introspective' came to be

OM is probably the single band I'd describe as the most truly unpredictable when it comes to how good their next release will be. hopefully this one will follow 'innocence' with the pattern of 'lousy' -> 'aureate' in that a new sound will be prototyped and then gloriously realised

otm re unpredictability of quality. I loved the two "live in a room" psych-rock albums - felt like a new resurgence - but the last album did nothing for me. The new song is decent. and lol at another artist just now deciding/discovering capitalism is bad

yeah it strikes me that he should have been realising this stuff maybe twenty years ago?

and agree that the last album was kind of off

i think it's a marketing tactic

When people say Barnes is too prolific, they're talking shite, basically. He releases an album every 18 months - with the same timeframe, the Pixies wouldn't have been able to release Trompe Le Monde until 1996 or something

I think it's a fair accusation in his case cause a bunch of his releases feel like less-good iterations of / variations on the previous one

right, and their popularity plateaued a long time ago. they're in the same spot as Deerhoof and Xiu Xiu... haven't been hip or hyped since 2010 at the latest, playing the same clubs to ever diminishing audiences. although it's reversed for Montreal: they play the same places but sell them out every year, and young kids always come out, but their records are m/l ignored. Deerhoof & Xiu Xiu get pretty good press for their records, but man, the kids are not picking up on them, and the turnout at their shows in recent years has been pretty dire and depressing, ime.

and of Montreal totally earn that live success, because their stage show is consistently awesome & different.

Don't really understand why he should be encouraged to take longer between albums. Is it to build anticipation or the idea that he'll be more inspired after taking extended time off writing?

I don't get it because I largely like why do anyway, and it's not like he is that prolific. An album every 18 months, with an EP six months later. Seems pretty normal to me personally and not some GBV-esque trip. Opinions will always vary for each release but I don't think he's put out an career-wreckingly disliked album. Stalks was fairly controversial but seems to have won plenty of fans over time.

*what he does
* a career

etc. i'm tired

Only people saying that are industry people. Longer you take between albums, more attention each one gets. Of course the risk you take is the public forgetting about you completely, which I wouldn't take over being a working band and keeping up a regular touring/recording schedule. If you wait years between records, you could get a hiatus bump like Fleet Foxes, LCD, Vampire Weekend... or you could just vanish. I really admire bands that just keep working.

I was speaking more on the creative side. some of the albums feel like the songs needed more time to bake properly, or for him to realize the material wasn't that special

I could understand that point of view more if it really did feel like he was just churning them out say annually, with the extra EP, in the way someone like Luke Haines does. Or like Ray Davies in the 70s, flitting from bloated concept album to next with no space to breathe. I don't think the albums have sounded any less focused as a consequence of coming out at these regular intervals.

I find it interesting that opinions will vary though, where on here you might see someone bat for Aureate Gloom, whereas other fans may see it as a tune-free low-point (I like it). I like that he's leaving behind all these albums which may take a few years to appreciate.

xp I agree. and I suspect he's of the mind that you gotta keep working or you'll be forgotten. a band like that is always in a precarious place. by touring regularly especially, he's kept a healthy fanbase, even if the records are neglected. and I guess he feels a need to have something new for those tours and not rest on his laurels, also he's obviously so prolific and not content to stay in one spot for too long. the 'live band in a room' period only lasted 2 or 3 years.

xp tbf he has done that, last full length LP was in 2016, and last year he put out a (really good) EP, in addition to a Hissing Fauna reissue.

his live band was absolutely incredible btw

I mean that the album appears every 18 months and pretty much as a routine there's an EP which follows about six months later, most likely from the same sessions. He's been doing that since at least Hissing.

I mean a healthy routine, not simply by rote

yeah i've seen of Montreal 3 times, in 2014, 2015, and 2017. all three were really extravagant shows: props, lights, half a dozen costume changes... and all three were totally different from each other, presentation and setlists. last year was especially sweet, he was fully in the EDM mode, all the backup players behind these huge LED platforms, he was in drag the whole time.

man needs to take a break i reckon. just can't abide much he's released since ooh.. a bit after Skeletal Lamping. I am kind of interested in the description of this new one though

Yeah if he stops making albums I'm into then I guess he should just stop

by my count, since Skeletal Lamping he's released two amazing albums, one good album and two slightly shonky albums. this does not count any EPs or whatnot

proceed, kevin

It would be alright if he'd released two amazing albums (Skeletal Lamping was 10 years ago, sure, but god it feels like less time than that and to have released FIVE more full-lengths, a bunch of comps and a handful of EPs just seems ridiculous for the kind of music he makes).

Skeletal Lamping is great, one of his best
False Priest isn't liked as much as others for reasons I don't get, it's my personal favorite
thecontrollersphere is great
Paralytic Stalks is tough to get into, but does some amazing things
Daughter of Cloud is a bit uneven (as would be expected for a collection of rarities and unrealeased tracks) but has some great songs
Lousy with Sylvianbriar is very good, though it feels like this is the point where it gets a bit less interesting
Aureate Gloom is an ok album with one amazing track (Empyrean Abattoir)
Innocence Reaches is fine. I listened to it a bunch of times when it was released, but never really felt to urge to revisit.
Rune Husk - I know I listened to this, but I don't really remember much about it.

So yeah, a pretty good 10 year run, but it seems like he's been dropping off the last couple of years. I wouldn't be terribly surprised to see him release another amazing album though.

I dropped off after Paralytic Stalks. It just sounded like a parody of everything that made Hissing / Skeletal so great > complex arrangements but WAY too complex and never settling in place for more than 5 seconds, plus LOTS of whingeing and preciousness. Tried giving the others a listen when they came out (Rune Husk? Didn't even realise this existed) but it was just 'ach I can't bear this any more'

Otm.

the first couple post-Hissing Fauna records really suffer from his trying to build conceptually from the second half of that album, to pretty smdh-y results

the whole Georgie Fruit conceit is pretty nuts and would absolutely NEVER fly today (although this isn’t really borne out in the lyrics, just the press releases)

it was nuts but just totally off the scale down-the-rabbit hole loopy that it worked. you're right, it wouldn't work today without coming under fire from a million blogs

I don't think there are a million blogs keeping track of what of Montreal is up to these days

There was a time for me where Kevin Barnes was like...I couldn't believe what he was doing. Sunlandic Twins and Hissing Fauna. The Sunlandic Twins is my favorite album from this century. I lost interest in the period after that but have liked this and that and I kinda neat to catch up.

kinda NEED to catch up

Love this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwYiB4XPRiM

the new album is great. I lost interest around False Priest, never listened to Paralytic Stalks (though I'm positive that one is going to undergo some serious critical reevaluation, much like Pinkerton or Adore), and he totally lost me with the garage rock albums with unbelievably awful & ugly album covers. though they've always been an amazing live band. but the new one is really great, his idea to make an album of "extended club mixes" worked. it's not a total break from the past like the previous EDM records (which I also never listened to, but when I saw them last year, those songs sounded great), it's actually a lot closer to the core, the heart music that defines of Montreal: Prince.

I've only given it one listen but it seemed...fine? some short stretches of inspiration here and there (sax solo (iirc)!), some stretches of not a lot of interest happening. also for all of his talk about it being a "political" album or whatever the concerns seemed to be more of the same.

oh the whole race angle is totally bullshit and completely contrived, I chalk that up to cynical marketing/publicity move. that's the curse of being in a band that never breaks up, if you plateau in popularity your records usually get ignored. like Deerhoof or Xiu Xiu, who continue to make amazing work but don't get the attention or respect they deserve imo. I like this record a lot because to me it sounds like after 5+ years of searching he's finally comfortable in an idiom other than rock/pop where it's not distracting or gimmicky, and his gift for melody and songwriting and arranging shines thru again.

holy shit the closing track

oh hm it didn't turn out the way i was hoping. he started rapping ffs

i don't like this very much i think. 'best since ____' is such a lazy narrative about this band anyway - their albums are so different to each other

aureate gloom 4eva suckaz

Paranoiac Intervals/Body Dysmorphia is an all-time classic. I like how he clearly follows his muse and doesn't give a fuck about what any detractors think, then moves onto the next thing leaving everyone to catch up five years later

Yeah that's the best song by a fair way

Track 3 is really great as well

Last two tracks are so frustrating. There are really fantastic things about both, but really jarring things too

I don't much like tracks 1 & 4

Hmm

Two great songs is better than the last album at least