I’ve pulled this album out, the only one I have
by this American psychedelic pop “band” called
Of Montreal, which is really the creative brainchild of
one Kevin Barnes, a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter,
visual artist, and provocateur. There is no identifying
information on the album cover, on the spine, or
on the disc labels. Not even the liner notes inside
the gatefold reveal band name or title, only a
tracklist, songwriting, instrumental, and production
credits, and more crazy art. There’s a full insert
with just more crazy art and no text. There are
no lyric sheets. I pulled the album out at the
very beginning of the O’s in the alphabet, and
I knew from memory that it was in fact an album
by Of Montreal, but I had to wikipedia the artwork
in order to find out which album I was about to
listen to. This thing is called Paralytic Stalks.
Of course it is. Look at that artwork. Another
prolific artist, Of Montreal has released 20 albums
since 1997. I only have this one and I’m not sure
why, what inspired me to check it out or why
I stopped at one. I remember this record somewhat
fondly, but don’t ask me to hum a single tune.
I would fail at that task.
It’s weird. It’s bombastic. It’s dense. Kevin’s
singing is a yelping tenor, sounding very much
like an English punk, yelling sometimes,
screaming, and then singing sensitively,
quietly, and often in a falsetto, harmonizing
with himself, creating almost Beach Boys
layering. These melodies are dense and his
lyrics are even more dense. Stylistically, the
tunes range from guitar rock, to disco, to funk,
to baroque chamber pop, to noisy, discordant
soundscape, the next move impossible to predict.
The lines between verses and choruses
are blurry, and while the vocal lines
are often beautiful and hooky, the songs
get changed up so quickly, it’s hard for the
listener to settle in and take hold. Clearly,
this is sophisticated stuff that requires
a commitment, likely repeated listenings
to truly appreciate. As I’m listening for
the first time in probably 14 years, I’m again
impressed by the density of this music
and wondering why it didn’t take hold for
me, why I didn’t continue to pick up albums
from Of Montreal. It’s like a love child between
Queen, XTC, The Bee Gees, Zappa, and the craziest
psychedelic trip you can imagine. God damn,
it’s cool, if not sometimes rather taxing.
Perhaps some of the most challenging
pop music of the 21st century thus far. Happy
to have rediscovered it, and finding myself
interested, 14 years after the release of
Paralytic Stalks, in diving a little deeper into
Of Montreal.
Notes on the vinyl edition: Paralytic Stalks, Polyvinyl Records, 2012, double opaque yellow vinyl.
In case you don’t already know: I’m listening to almost everything in my vinyl collection, A to Z, and writing at least one, sometimes two or three long skinny poem-like-things in response for each artist, and on a few occasions, writing a long skinny poem-like-thing in response to more than one artist. As a poet and a student of poetry, I understand that these things look like poems, but they don’t really sound much like poetry, hence, I call them “poem-like-things.” I’ll admit that they’re just long, skinny essays that veer every now and then into the poetic or lyric.
michael jarmer 