speed of dark

One of my resolutions for 2007 is to listen to more complete albums than I did last year. In my own defense, I had no idea for over half of 2006 that I would soon be writing reviews for other people to read. Even with this resolve in mind, there will be shortcomings. No one is sending us CDs by reknowned groups months in advance of the release date. Also, I have no secret aspirations to be a Rolling Stone-quality reviewer.

Which one is Kevin Barnes?

Therefore, it's taking me a while to evaluate and put down some thoughts about Of Montreal's Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?. Add to that the fact that it's an hefty piece of work and has an addendum EP connected to it: Icons, Abstract Thee. I have enjoyed individual songs from other albums by Of Montreal in the past without ever getting into the CDs from beginning to end--first, because there's just so darn many of them. There's a new CD almost every year. Second, the songs are sonically luscious but verbally dense, so I can't absorb them very quickly. Of Montreal serves a 10-course meal when sometimes all I want is a sandwich, ya know?

I'm very glad I took the time with Hissing Fauna because as it turns out, I like it very much. It's certainly obvious that it is a concept album. If you have listened to only a song or two from it, you have done yourself and Kevin Barnes, the brains and artist behind Of Montreal, a disservice. These songs are designed to flow one to the next in the order they appear on the CD.

So what IS the concept? Merely the universal themes of:
• the search for love and the unbearable burden of getting it.
• the impossibility of fulfilling all of love's ambitions.
• the gnawing fear that what you need makes your partner crazy
• the dawning realization that your partner makes you crazy
• the certainty that you make yourself crazy.
• the seductive idea that the people you love most would be better off without you.

Think back to Pink Floyd and The Wall and how many people liked it because of these same themes. These are the dreams and nightmares everyone has, and Barnes has articulated them awesomely well, and much more charmingly than Pink Floyd did. "At least," Barnes sings, "I author my own disaster."

There are twelve songs on this CD, and of those there are only two I don't care for. The fourth song, "A Sentence of Sorts in Kongsvinger," is the one that lays out for you exactly what's going on: "I spent the winter on the verge of a total breakdown while living in Norway...while trying to restructure my character because it had become vile to its creator." Suffering from suicidal depression, Barnes pleads on "Heimdalsgate Like A Promethean Curse," "Come on mood shift, shift back to good again." Barnes begs his audience, "Is that too much to ask?" The pressure and pain keep accelerating through the first six songs, mocked by bouncy rhythms, bright tunes, and perfectly synched harmonic layers.

Then comes my favorite, right at the middle, the watershed song of the album: "The Past Is a Grotesque Monster." The first time I heard it, I played it three times in a row, completely oblivious to the fact that it is 12 minutes long. It begins with a rumbling of laser sounds and hurtles forward at relentless speed toward some cliff edge with a torrent of lyrics that are completely gripping. It still doesn't seem that long to me. I could take any few lines from this song to illustrate their power--just try these:

i find myself
searching for old selves
while speeding forward
through the plateglass of maturing cells

Barnes has said that in this song he completes his transformation into his glam-rock alter-ego, Georgie Fruit (wikipedia). Two songs that follow certainly are fruity, reminding me strongly of Prince at his campiest. In "Labrynthian Pomp" the word "drag" is mentioned several times along with "I'd just like to disappear forever" -- into the persona of Georgie Fruit? It seems that along with all the other angst, Barnes may be a man who is comfortable with neither his masculine nor feminine side. That's a rough one.

Still, by the end of the album, things seem to have been mostly resolved and put to right, at least for now. Maybe his wife/twin is OK with a husband who borrows her clothing and makeup. We can sigh with relief to "We Were Born the Mutants Again With Leafling":

sometimes we're not legible
but we're the same, stranger in mode
let them say our love is peculiar,
don't care
there's only nano-ever-after
we won't let it end in disaster
you are my twin
no, i will never go there

Further evidence of redemption is found in the sweet song to his baby daughter "Miss Blonde" that is found on the EP:

When I look in your eyes
I see me looking back
it’s kind of creepy how
you own my heart
yeah you own my heart
Let’s stay together

Creepy, indeed. My advice to anyone struggling through these years is to stick it out and get to the part with the grandchildren. It's even creepier to see pieces of yourself and your parents peeking out from someone a generation removed, but it's also comforting. And so worth it.

2007 has just begun, but I'm sure that Hissing Fauna will be a contender for the best of the year, and I hope I have more as good as this to consider. Don't cheat yourself. Get it.

The Past Is a Grotesque Animal

Miss Blonde, Your Papa Is Failing from Icons, Abstract Thee EP (2007)

In remembrance of happier times:
Lysergic Bliss from Satanic Panic In the Attic (2004)


band website: Watch Kevin apply Georgie's makeup
myspace: Watch an excellent video of Heimdalsgate Like A Promethean Curse
Buy CD at amazon, emusic and iTunes
A pretty good, but not perfect, site for lyrics to this album. I have submitted some corrections, and you can too.

I recommend reading these two excellent posts at obscure sound. I envy him the four months he's had to absorb this CD.