The Evil Empire

Inspired half by Cristin's post yesterday, half by the fact that I'm seeing them on Monday, and half by the message board post on the subject, today I'd like to talk about Of Montreal.


You've likely heard of Of Montreal by now. The enormous coverage they've seen in the blogosphere of late has exposed them well, and after I bought (and loved) The Sunlandic Twins last year I just had to pick up their new album, Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? I bought it off Polyvinyl Records and with the album they threw in a bonus ep called Icons, Abstract Thee. Bonus EPs are usually rubbish. Full of off-cuts that didn't make the album for a reason, so I didn't expect much when I put it on...

Of Montreal - Du Og Meg

Wow. Wow. I was blown away. This got under my skin the moment I pressed play, and I haven't loved a song quite so instantly in a while. It tells a story of an American girl who falls in love with a boy from 'The Evil Empire' and goes to live with him. They end up getting married and living happily ever after. It's not even 2 and a half minutes long, so it's practically over as soon as it's begun, but it still manages to fit in a saxophone solo. This is the sound of a band with more great songs than they know what to do with.

Of Montreal - The Past Is A Grotesque Animal

This track, on the other hand, is off the album itself. It simultaneously marks the climax of the album, as well as its midpoint - building up and up over twelve minutes, it reflects the boiling over of the dark undertones evident up to that point. Singer Barnes grows increasingly agitated - getting angrier and angrier, at one point shouting 'We want our film to be beautiful, not realistic!'. Before this point on the album, the darkness is overwhelmed by the pop melodies, and after this point things get, well... funky, but during this one twelve minute window we peer deep into Barnes' soul and it's not a pleasant place. It's almost as if the entire rest of the album is pointing, hinting, towards this one song.

I realize all this is more than a little geeky of me, so intense examination of album themes aside, I ought to just say that it's a fantastic album, more than worthy of a purchase, and it'll probably end up in my top 5 albums of the year. It so often happens that I love an album and then the following album enormously disappoints me (I'm looking at you, Bloc Party), so it's refreshing to have this one utterly eclipse its predecessor. Thankyou Of Montreal - may you be utterly wonderful when I see you on Monday :)

- Duncan

P.S. Slightly off-topic, but OH MY GOD, BRITNEY - WHAT ON EARTH HAVE YOU DONE?!