Rockin' Our Turntable: of Montreal's 'Lousy with Sylvianbriar'

By Tankboy in Arts & Entertainment on Oct 29, 2013 3:30PM

It's interesting to see how of Montreal has steadily condensed their sound as they've expanded their production values. Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? may have been the apex of their lo-fi approach crossed with Kevin Barnes' predilection for stuffing 17 songs into a single tune. That album either entranced or exhausted the listener and ever since Barnes has been working towards a more consistent approach as he's gradually exited the bedroom and entered the multitrack. For the most part we have found this maturity in the band's sound to be an improvement even if others seem more reluctant to let go of the "weird" indie incarnation of the band.

On their latest album, Lousy with Sylvianbriar, Barnes continues to refine the band's sound, something that he began in earnest with False Priest a few years ago, and focuses it to even greater effect by filtering through his version of '60s pop. This doesn't mean he's tempered his lyrics at all—those are still firmly rooted in the weird and disturbing nether reaches of Barnes' mind and we would have it no other way—but instead of delivering them all with pinched yelping and nasal affectation he allows his voice to unfold far more naturally here. "Obsidian Currents" has him virtually cooing in your ear and it's remarkably effective, but don't worry; he still delivers plenty of tunes in his Bowie coked-out yowl, only there's now an added depth there.

You want to know the absolute weirdest thing about Lousy with Sylvianbriar? It's super-duper accessible. Like, you could play this for your mom and she would probably bop along with the tunes without realizing just how twisted the content is because the melodies are just so sweet. And this just confirms what many have suspected for a long time, and that is that once Barnes figured out how to edit and focus his ideas that the resulting work would caress you with its beauty instead of arrest you and cause the equivalent of aural whiplash. This isn't to say of Montreal's earlier work isn't pleasurable, it most certainly is but in a completely different way. But it seems that while in the past Barnes was restlessly experimenting he has now found the confidence to create a solid bedrock for an entire album to rest upon.

of Montreal plays a sold out show tomorrow, Oct. 30, at Lincoln Hall, 2424 N Lincoln, 7 p.m., all ages