Skeletal Lamping - Dark Publications

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Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
Their breakthrough, "Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?" catapulted the band to the upper echelon of indie stardom. The record landed on over thirty major year-end lists including Paste, Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, and Associated Press, and sold over 100,000 copies. "Skeletal Lamping" also delivers. It's a complicated and dense thrill ride packed with slinky grooves. Unpredictable, unique, and epic. Includes 32-panel fold-out/pop-up art piece by David Barnes and Gemini Tactics. Double LP on 180 gram vinyl includes giant die-cut poster exclusive to the LP.

Album Description
Of Montreal intrigue their fans with their 2008 release Skeletal Lamping. It's a complicated and dense thrill ride packed with slinky grooves. Unpredictable, unique, and epic. Includes 32-panel fold-out/pop-up art piece by David Barnes and Gemini Tactics. Over two million plays on MySpace and over sixteen million plays on Last.fm.Their breakthrough, Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? catapulted the band to the upper echelon of indie stardom. The record landed on over thirty major year-end lists including Paste, Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, and Associated Press, and sold over 100,000 copies.

Customer Reviews: Read 15 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

Skeletal Lamping October 21, 2008
11 out of 14 found this review helpful

This record is the musical equivalent of a transgender hipster knocking back equal doses of ecstasy and caffeine while freaking out to a haggard mash of trance and glam rock. Good news is, taken the right way, these things are all very, very good. Skeletal Lamping is a very enjoyable record and an admirable follow-up to the best-of-2007 Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? Though there was virtually no way Barnes was going to topple his magnum opus a mere year-and-a-half later, he took an earnest stab at creating a record that at least outdoes its predecessor, even if it doesn't outshine it. If you want to spend all your time comparing Skeletal Lamping to Hissing Fauna, you're likely going to find it coming up rather short, but if you take the record on its own merits, you're likely to be very pleased with the output.

First and foremost, this is music on crack. Listening to this album the first time, you have virtually no idea when and where this record is going to go, so don't even bother trying to predict the hooks and shifts. If there is any one thing that Barnes is, it's a hook-writing robot from the future, sent back to our time to save the world from stale indie rock. This man can record 500 hooks per second, and Skeletal Lamping is no exception. When you've gotten through this monster a few times, you'll find it impossible not to sing along through many of the songs' fine moments, which do come up more often than the professional reviews would have you believe. I won't attempt to go through this album on a track-by-track basis, as it has something like 100 different song ideas held within this 15 track album. I would rather evacuate my ocular cavities with a melon baller while listening to N'Sync than try to take this album on one track at a time.

Suffice to say, this is a record that must be heard, and even if it doesn't snag you on the first play through, give it some more spins, and before long you'll find this to be a worthy addition to Of Montreal's recently stellar output.

4 out of 5 stars

One Big Girl Talk-esque Mashup of Poppy Goodness October 22, 2008
6 out of 6 found this review helpful

Let me first say that if you were to put this cd in and play it from start to finish, you will really have no idea where the songs start and where they finish. Just when you think there's an "actual" song, it will completely change tempo and key for the last 50 seconds. Such is the way of the new album, and like it or not, "Georgie Fruit" is in full-effect.

If you weren't a fan of "Hissing Fauna..." then I'm not sure you'd be into this album, but it's still worth a listen.

My one major grip with the record is the opener. It starts out fine and dandy for 2:05 seconds, but then it turns into a mess of dissonant chords and pretty much just awful noise... which would be tolerable for about 15 seconds, but instead it continues and intensifies for a FULL THREE MINUTES! If anything, that should be saved for the last song on the disc, but instead they make a terrible decision to start of the album that way. If I wasn't already an Of Montreal fan, I would've shut off the album immediately and probably wouldn't go back, which is unfortunate as I would've missed a lot.

While the songs are scatterbrained, there are plenty of psych-pop hooks and overdubbed vocals sprinkled throughout to keep you entertained. The song Wicked Wisdom starts out nice and funky, and doesn't disappoint through all the in-song changes. Even when the track slows down, the dynamic shift is quite memorable.

My favorite track is "An Eluardian Instance", as I am a big fan of the 'Satanic Panic...' and 'Sunlandic Twins...' albums, and this is the closest they come to that sound on this album. Great track.

Other highlight tracks are "Gallery Piece", with its poppy yet daring vocal melody and "St. Exquisite's Confessions", which features some great lyrics against a nice soft and easy tempo.

There are a few other great tracks here besides what I mentioned, so it's definitely worth a buy!

2 out of 5 stars

Of Montreal - Skeletal Lamping 4/10 October 21, 2008
5 out of 9 found this review helpful

Earlier this year, Of Montreal frontman and main creative force Kevin Barnes stated in an interview that Skeletal Lamping would be composed of "hundreds of short segments ranging from thirty to fifty seconds in length" and "would deviate from traditional pop song structures." While Lamping definitely doesn't have a hundred-plus track list, it's fifteen titled "songs" deviate so far from standard pop conventions that it's almost silly to analyze the album in the context of each tune, as each consists of a amalgam of radically different sounds and ideas. And while this is an expected hallmark of Barnes, a ridiculously talented musician fairly bursting with new and innovative ideas, Skeletal Lamping can't help but collapse under the weight of it's own pretensions.

Whereas last year's Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? detailed love, break-ups, and Barnes' fictional and incredibly odd "transformation" into his musical alter ego Georgie Fruit (a black former funk musician in his late 40s whose been through multiple sex changes and a couple stays in prison), Lamping concerns itself with Fruit, for the most part, through its entirety. Barnes has never been one for subtlety or, uh, normalcy, and so for much of Lamping we get lyrics like "I want you to be my pleasure puss / I want to know what it's like to be inside you" on the tiresomely long "Plastis Wafers" and other typically Barnesian sentiments such as "I'm so sick of sucking the dick of this cruel, cruel city / I've forgotten what it takes to please a woman" on "St. Exquisite's Confessions." While this may be exactly what a forty-year-old transsexual might sing about, the concept is only entertaining for a short while before turning the corner from novelty to absurdity.

But sexually charged, metaphor-laden lyrics and Barnes' unique vocal stylings are par for the course with Of Montreal. Instead, it's the frustrating unevenness and ADD musical twitches that continually stunt Lamping's momentum and bring the record back down to earth and (for Of Montreal, at least) mediocrity. Barnes switches from theme to theme, from instrument to instrument, from piano balladry to funky guitar grooves to bombastic synths to techno-dance madness. Barnes has never been all over the place more than he is on Skeletal Lamping, and it's a testament to his unbridled creativity as well as his inability to edit well.

At times (like on the anthemic "An Eluardian Instance" or the skittering synth-pop of "For Our Elegant Caste") you can't believe what you're hearing: the future of indie pop as seen through the lenses of a psychedelic, bisexual madman with a penchant for multi-tracked harmonies. At other times, however, you just want to slap Barnes for ruining a good thing by putting too much on at once (the long, dreary "Plastis Wafers" and the schizophrenic opener "Nonpareil of Favor" come to mind). Meticulously put together ear candy will, at times and for no obvious reason, suddenly take a 180-degree shift into a discordant, high-pitched jangle that highlights the album's true overarching theme: inconsistency.

Of Montreal's latest, then, fails because it lacks the very thing that made their earlier works such satisfying works of power pop: a balance between boundary-pushing experimentalism and a focus on crafting melodic tracks that connect to the listener. Skeletal Lamping is surely challenging, and at some parts Barnes' has created some of 2008's most transcendent moments, but as a whole the album stumbles along a myriad of half-baked ideas with the occasional "a-ha!" moment interlaced frustratingly and sporadically throughout.

5 out of 5 stars

A Schizophrenic Indie Pop Masterpiece! October 21, 2008
4 out of 6 found this review helpful

On Of Montreal's 2007 album, Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?, Kevin Barnes channelled his inner Bowie and introduced us all to a bizarre cross-dressing persona named Georgie Fruit. For a few amazing tracks, we got a taste of what Barnes' "black shemale " had to offer. On Skeletal Lamping, Georgie Fruit breaks free and largely runs the show. The result is a complex, difficult listen, that is equally confusing and amazing.

Skeletal Lamping opens with a skittery string synth that masks the darkness and diversity of the album (and song) with a more carefree, breezy feel. The song, "Nonpareil of Favor," is one of the album's weaker tracks, but it does an appropriate job of opening the album on a high note and then transforming it into something completely different than what most would expect. The majority of the song's 6 minutes is filled with loud, distorted eighth notes that capture Kevin Barnes' mental collapse into Georgie Fruit rather appropriately. It is not the most enjoyable of songs, but it serves its purpose.

By the time the second track rolls around, Barnes' transformation is complete. The declaration of "I'm a motherf**kin' headline/ oh, b**ch you don't even know it!" doesn't sound like Kevin at all, and that's because it isn't. "Wicked Wisdom" is Skeletal Lamping in a nutshell; a song filled with multiple movements, most of which don't flow naturally from one to the next. The very fact that nearly every track on the album is filled with multiple songs and snippets makes it a difficult album to review or explain. Just know that what a song sounds like at its inception is usually completely different from what it will sound like by its end.

There are a few songs on the album which don't follow this pattern, like "For Our Elegant Caste" or "Gallery Piece" which largely keep the same basic feel throughout their lengths. The former is almost a guaranteed single, and will likely be the first track that jumps out at most listeners. It's a captivating track with an inescapably singable chorus, even if it is a bit discomforting ("We can do it softcore if you want/ but you should know I take it both ways"). "Gallery Piece" is a less-enchanting, bass-driven dance track that should fare better at a live show than it does here. As it stands, it can be a bit repetitive and is only worth listening to for its bridge.

"An Elaurdian Instance" brings back "I Was Never Young's" trumpets with a triumphant entry of a first movement. The song (also known as "Our Last Summer as Independents") is one of the album's sunnier moments and describes what sounds like Barnes meeting his wife. But determining where Barnes ends and Georgie Fruit begins on Skeletal Lamping is quite an overwhelming task. Quite simply, it's difficult to tell what persona Barnes is adopting on any song on the album, which only adds to the confusion of it all. There are moments where Barnes is clearly being himself, like on "Death is Not a Parallel Move" where he addresses Fruit, saying "The identity I composed out of terror has become oppressive now/ I must defy this dark assignment/ I'm over it now." But for the most part, the lines are much less defined.

Perhaps the most impressive aspect of Skeletal Lamping is Barnes' ability to tackle a large array of genres and styles without making the album seem disjointed. Funk, rock, disco, experimental rock, and 60s pop are all utilized in equally important roles, and it becomes clear after several listens that such a strange mixture of styles really only makes sense when given the complex nature of Georgie Fruit. As himself, Barnes may be pigeonholed into exploring the far reaches of indie pop, but as a black transexual with a history involving 70s funk bands and prostitution, he can indulge in every bizarre sound he's ever considered.

There is much here that has reopened the doors to Kevin Barnes' vivid imagination, doors that have seemingly been shut for the last few years. Fans of the band's more inventive work (Coquelicot or The Gay Parade, for instance) will find Skeletal Lamping to be a welcomed addition to the Of Montreal catalogue. Broken down to its most basic forms, it combines the randomness of Coquelicot with the darkness and variety of Hissing Fauna, without sounding like anything the band has accomplished before. I must admit that my first several listens to Skeletal Lamping were accompanied by feelings of anger, doubt, and befuddlement. To put it bluntly, this is an album that is far too complex to be fully appreciated by a quick uninvolved listen. Navigating through the genres, 15-second songs, and schizophrenic storytelling can be quite challenging for someone expecting something as accessible and catchy as The Sunlandic Twins. But the challenge is well worth it when the album finally clicks, when you start to learn that each song has a purpose, that they all have a story to tell. Skeletal Lamping seems destined to become an album that will divide fans and critics alike. But for what it's worth, I know what side I stand on, and I can't help but dish out the praise for Of Montreal yet again. Skeletal Lamping is the real deal!

Key Tracks:
1. "Wicked Wisdom"
2. "An Elaurdian Instance"
3. "Triphallus, to Punctuate!"
4. "Beware Our Nubile Miscreants"
5. "Id Engager"

9 out of 10 Stars

3 out of 5 stars

Thinking about you in my secret language October 25, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful

It was pretty obvious from the start that "Skeletal Lamping" was not going to be an ordinary album -- or even an ordinary Of Montreal album, if there is such a thing. Reason: Kevin Barnes said in advance that the normal tracklisting with contain many, many more tiny songs, and would show his transformation into his alter ego -- Georgie Fruit, a fortysomething black multi-transgendered ex-convict funk musician.

So unsurprisingly, it's a pretty schizophrenic little album, to the point where it feels like someone is carefully spreading your brain over a piece of toast. Sometimes this is a good thing.... and sometimes not.

"My lover, I've been donating/Time to review/All the misinterpretations/That define me and you," Barnes sings yelpily, over a dancing piano-psychpop melody.... only to mutate into a thumping clashing rock'n'roll number halfway through, and then again into a twinkly experimental song before it ends. "Wicked Wisdom" is a similar experience -- sparkly and schizophrenically laid out, especially since it leads into...

... "For Our Elegant Caste," a catchy and unhinged pop song that completely takes us into the world of Georgie Fruit and the equally oddly-named "Chrissie List." Barnes doesn't even sound like himself here -- he sings in falsetto, and constantly repeats that "We can do it softcore if you want/But you should know I take it both ways." Huh?

And most of the songs that follow are equally hard to put your finger on -- each one seems to be a string of smaller songs that rarely have anything in common. Stately pianopop, joyous orchestral funk, blippy electropop, seductively weird rock'n'roll, stoned-sounding recitations, mellow jazzy tunes, delicate expanses of synth, sexually-charged string-laden pop, and a thousand combinations of the above are all squashed together like pages of a megacompressed book.

"Skeletal Lamping" is one of those albums where you're not sure if you should love it for its ingenious twisting of musical norms, or hate it because it's so hard and confusing to listen to. Honestly speaking, I had moments of both emotions -- on one hand, Of Montreal's latest is even madder and more bizarre than anything they've ever made before, and more bravely experimental than most bands will get even on heavy-duty drugs. And the Georgie Fruit persona allows Kevin Barnes to completely break free of any musical boundaries.

On the other hand, the ceaseless abrupt transitions in mid-song -- up to five times a song -- are enough to jolt your eyeballs from their sockets, because there's no flow and no warning. Boom, the song has just switched over in the middle. That, and many Georgie Fruit lines like "Lover face, how your *ss is pumping" are too blatant for Barnes' surreal writing talents.

That said, the insane tangle of "Skeletal Lamping's" instrumentation just drips with enthusiasm -- it sounds like Barnes and Co. have found a new wellspring of inspiration, and they're draining it for all they're worth. Funky guitars, brassy horns, subtle piano, heavy swips of synth and a lot of snapped fingers, clapping hands and wild beats all get smushed together with whirling whirring bass and a blob of solemn organ. It can make you want to dance, sink you into an echoing cavern, and drive you through sordid alleyways in a gloriously depraved nightlife.

Barnes seems to switch randomly between himself and Georgie Fruit in this album, and his vocals recklessly run between falsetto croons to a more "normal" pop voice. As for the lyrics, they are full of references to Orpheus, Oedipus Rex, "Valerie's Week of Wonders" and Germaine Greer. In short, they're as schizophrenic as the music -- we get the forthright sexual references interspersed with more oblique, eccentric lines like "I feel so abused by the sky karma icy canova I got from" and "The great cuirass of my skull is choking on their dull symptoms."

"Skeletal Lamping" is an album that prompts much headscratching, with its rabid case of multiple-personality disorder and wildly varying lyrics. It's far from perfect, but it grows on you -- if you don't mind songs that won't commit to a single style.

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