Of Montreal goes electro-pop with Skeletal Lamping

Panic at the Disco fans will happily dance along to the new album.

By Kristin Torres
Oct. 13, 2008

Courtesy of Polyvinyl Records

Naked people! Or at least, what appear to be naked Barbie and Ken dolls.

(Click graphic to enlarge)

Correction appended

As Kevin Barnes embarks on his glittery and gleefully wacky transition into indie pop's answer to David Bowie's "Ziggy Stardust" phase, Of Montreal's sound somehow manages to keep up to speed and in line with its flashy frontman. On the band's latest release, Skeletal Lamping, the band officially axes and buries the Of Montreal of yesteryear, showing no signs of apology or regret. And they dance the whole way through. It's a toe-tappingly inevitable evolution or a torturous, agonizing devolution into the cliché electro-pop sound permeating indie'sAs Kevin Barnes embarks on his glittery and gleefully wacky transition into indie pop's answer to David Bowie's "Ziggy Stardust" phase, Of Montreal's sound somehow manages to keep up to speed and in line with its flashy frontman. On the band's latest release, Skeletal Lamping, the band officially axes and buries the Of Montreal of yesteryear, showing no signs of apology or regret.

And they dance the whole way through.

It's a toe-tappingly inevitable evolution or a torturous, agonizing devolution into the cliché electro-pop sound permeating indie's current climate - depending on how you look at it. As one of the most easily recognizable siblings in the second-generation lineup of the Georgia-based Elephant Six Recording Company (thank you, Outback Steakhouse jingle committee), Of Montreal's newest release is a shameless and proud declaration of deviation.

Initially embracing the blanket, uniform Elephant Six sound like that of the dreamy, surreal Olivia Tremor Control and Circulatory System, Of Montreal was in step and a hit with the lo-fi psychedelia market. During that period, Barnes and his band were doing the same thing that their peers were - just better. And it didn't go unnoticed. But it was with 2002's Aldhils Arboretum that Of Montreal started showing signs of straying. A Casio cameo here, a synth-beat there, a sing-songy chorus for good measure - it was the musical version of dipping a toe to test the waters of something a little more giddy and a whole lot less expected.

Two years later, Satanic Panic in the Attic followed close behind, developing and nurturing what Aldhils Arboretum started. And if Satanic Panic was the shovel, it was 2005's The Sunlandic Twins that dug the hole. It was Dylan goes electric. It was The Beatles go surreal and start taking LSD. Most of all, it was a little Outback Steakhouse commercial rendition of "Wraith Pinned to the Mist and Other Games" off Sunlandic - and some surprising MTV rotation.

Call Skeletal Lamping the nail in the coffin.

Fans familiar with the band's former style might come away disappointed that the record is a clear announcement of reinvention. But the retooled, revamped and restyled (for Barnes, at least) Of Montreal will introduce them to a completely different fan-base hungry for something to dance to. Take "Id Engager," the record's first single: one-third Kylie Minogue sans the flamboyant rump-shaking, one-third Panic at the Disco (or at least just their punch-you-in-the-face sexuality) and one-third Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?, the track is snippy and bratty with lines like "Can't help it if it's true/Don't want to be your man/Just want to play with you, play with you."

But tracks like "Nonpareil of Wisdom" rely less on disco-beats and instead recall the rock 'n' roll side of the band's initial sound. With almost two minutes of continuous abuse of the electric guitar and some rhythmless pounding of the skins, Of Montreal steers clear from the idea that they're a one-trick pony with a mission to get people on the dance floor. The song is noisy and disorderly, a welcomed raucous number to punctuate the rest of the album's synth-happy beats.

The abstract and doom-and-gloom themes of past lyrics are gone, too. Skeletal Lamping samples a schizophrenic sound, completely shedding the former lo-fi in favor of something soft-core. "We can do it soft-core if you want/But you should know that I go both ways," Barnes belts on "For Our Elegant Caste."

While Skeletal Lamping represents a transformation for Of Montreal, it shouldn't come as a surprise to fans - it's been a gradual, 11-year course. Fortunately for the brokenhearted and distraught, the soundtrack to their mourning is Of Montreal's most sugarcoated and sassiest effort to date, helping loyalist dance through the grieving process.

Correction: This report incorrectly named one of the tracks from the album. The song is called "Nonpareil of Favor." (Added 11:19 p.m., October 13, 2008)

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