Record Review - 3 March 30 2005

Of Montreal could be grifters working a con, insinuating themselves into your confidence, and, trust in hand, making away with your heart. Leader Kevin Barnes has never lacked for ambition (see concept album Gay Parade with its Kafka-esque stories and cast of more than 40 musicians).

Born during the second wave of bands to emerge from the Elephant 6 collective, Of Montreal shares a passion for ’60s pop, but Barnes is too adventurous to be so circumscribed. On the group’s latest, the Athens act explores electronic backing textures and expansive, bubbling psych-rock arrangements, which Barnes describes as “21st-century ADD electro-cinematic avant-disco.” It’s not a bad description, as it combines a melodicism worthy of Ray Davies with an orchestral mien that screams Phil Spector. Barnes weaves the electronic elements into sunny harmonies and pastry-tasty hooks that subtly allow the songs plenty of room to breathe. It’s pretty stuff that defies ambivalence.

Among the highlights are “The Party’s Crashing Us,” which sounds like Black Sea-era XTC, the scintillating “Wraith Pinned to the Mist (and Other Games),” recalling “Waterloo Sunset” set to a Wurlitzer-spawned marimba beat, and the swirling power-pop, dystopic lyrical tour de force, “Forecast Fascist Future,” with its chorus, “Boredom murders the heart of the age, while sanguinary creeps take the stage.” Pure indie-pop bliss.??