Customer Reviews

Cherry Peel

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Of Montreal sprang into existance with their debut "Cherry Peel," but they might as well have called it "All You Need Is Love." It has cheery pop melodies and offbeat lyrics, but the most noticeable thing is the focus on love -- especially hearts-and-flowers, pounding-heart love.

It opens with "Everything Disappears When You Come Around," a charming acoustic ballad that is either really sweet or really disturbing, depending on how you feel about vanishing ears and headless birds. The vibe continues in songs like the electronic-tinged "I Can't Stop Your Memory," the rollicking "Don't Ask Me To Explain" and bizarre "Sleeping in the Beetle Bug."

The second half opens with a peculiar friendship/love ode that begins, "Tim, wish you were born a girl,/So I could've been your boyfriend." What follows is a mishmash of melancholy laments ("You looked in my eyes,/Then said, "I'm so sorry") and puppy-love songs, ending with the lines: "You've got a special gift./Do you see how you're changing the world/just by hanging around?" It doesn't get much more enchanting than that.

Love is something that seeps into almost every Of Montreal albums -- love, kissing, lovers, and relationships that either bloom or slowly decline. "Cherry Peel" is mostly on that subject, although it does dip into feel-good ditties here and there ("No matter how you died through winter,/In spring you're born again,/Your life might not be going good,/But spring helps you to pretend.")

The Elephant 6 bands are known for having a sort of sixties vibe. "Cherry Peel" has the sunniness from the best of the sixties pop, along with the sparkling multilayered melodies. But the musical tinkering is too sparse compared to their later work. The acoustic guitar takes center stage, with a bit of sitar and muted percussion woven in.

With music so simple, it's up to Kevin Barnes to keep things weird. Some songs have straightforward lyrics, but others say that "I'd like to marry all of my close friends,/And live in a big house together by an angry sea." Not to mention "The birds have no heads when you come around./Everything loses its legs when you come around." Is that a good thing or not? Who cares, it's all strange and sweet.

"Cherry Peel" is a relatively unpolished piece of work by Of Montreal, and doesn't dip as far into musical madness as their later work. But as a collection of oddball love songs, few things can match it.

quite minimalist in production; quite genius in melodic orchestration; brilliant songwriting-pop music has never heard such harmonic and intelligent melodies....as quoted by a friend, "very clever." stranded on a desert island with this would be heaven.

This disc is a must have for fans of Beatles, Beach Boys, Apples In Stereo, etc.. My favorite in 1997.

Of Montreal's first, and still their best, "Cherry Peel" is an indie pop delight like none other. Though parts of the album are weaker, and it winds down near the end, Kevin Barnes' frank writings on the meaning of love (especially the puppy love of crushes) and the band's flawless pop style makes up for their shortcomings. It is dissapointing that Of Montreal will probably never make an album on this subject again, but on the other hand they don't really need to. If any song has ever captured the meaning of brief love, it's "Baby" and if any song has ever got down exactly how it is to be unsure about another's feelings and thus having a hard time sorting out your own, it's "Don't Ask Me to Explain".

It opens with a simple, but characteristically strange love song, "Everything Dissapears When You Come Around", and it never leaves it's core themes. And there's nothing wrong with that. It'd be a classic if it weren't for some of the later songs and the unfortunate fact that the cheap recording equipment mars the album's beauty at times. Still, I have to say you should pick it up.

This is the best album I have bought in years. A coarse fusion of They Might Be Giants, Radiohead, Weezer, and by default, The Beatles, Cherry Peel is a delightful blend of discordant folk with a lyrically Emo style. Of Montreal has given us a raw and honest sound. Cherry Peel provides jangly, poppy, upbeat tunes with some dark and trippy melancholia added for depth and flavor. An outstanding find.

This is an early Of Montreal album. I usually divide the existence of the band into three parts: Early (poppy, twee); Mid (a short experimental, vaudville like period); and Late (the drum machine years).

While I love all of the approaches Of Montreal has taken, it is this album and Satanic Panic in the Attic which first got me to stop, listen, and worship this idiosyncratic music. No two songs are really alike in this album, and each and everyone of them is an absolute gem that is quirky, fun, and catchy. "When You're Loved Like You Are" has strong harmonies and a 1920's feel to me.

I think everyone's favourite song off this album though, would have to be "Don't Ask Me to Explain."

Listen to soem samples. I would highly suggest purchasing the album if you find yourself even remotely interested because Of Montreal's songs have so much more, and are so unexpected, that a thirty second sample can't hope to capture.

this is a gorgeous record...it's hard to believe i've owned it for 5 years because i still keep listening to it. i think the reason is the songs have a timeless quality to them--ignore what people say about a "sixties" influence, these songs could have been written in 1920 or last week, and it wouldn't matter. it's pop at its best, but there are elements of waltzes and quasi-jazz here as well. essentially, it's folk music as written by burt bachrach, or better yet, quit comparing them to others and just enjoy. this stuff is great. and your girlfriend will like it too!

While most indie rock aficionados hail Of Montreal as one of the finest of the "second wave" of Elephant 6 bands, it is usually on the strength of their conceptual albums such as the much praised Gay Parade or the electro-sheen of the newer Satanic Panic in the Attic. Cherry Peel is a different animal altogether, though no less enthralling. While less experimental from both a songwriting and recording point of view, this decidedly lo-fi production offers catchy pop songs from start to finish. It's easily the most fun, most melodic CD this Athens, GA collective (well, mastermind Kevin Barnes for all intents and purposes) ever released. Imagine Weezer scrubbed squeaky clean with the Beatles influence cranked up to 11 and you have an idea of what this album is like. Another home run for the Elephant 6 collective and a good purchase for indie pop fans.

Best Tracks:
"Everything Disappears When You Come Around" - Weird lyrics over a simple melody - pretty much this album in a nutshell. Fun track.
"I Can't Stop Your Memory" - Great kick in to the chorus on this alternating slow/upbeat number. Reminiscent of the cleverest Weezer tunes.
"Don't Ask Me To Explain" - Overly sugary power pop with a noisy instrumental breakdown (I'm pretty sure that's kazoo!)
"In Dreams I Dance With You" - An amazing Pinocchio fairytale set to a gentrly strummed acoustic track with a jarring waltz-y breakdown. My #1 track here.
"Sleeping In The Beetle Bug" - Just a great catchy pop tune. Nothing earth shattering but always on my stereo.

This cd is on repeat in my cd player. Infact I have two one far my car and stereo. Even though I'm indifferent to living in a feather house somehow I can realate. So like sonic youth said "Closing time" NOW go BUY this cd or you will just be wasting your precious time!

Pop Kulcher Review: Maybe I was just expecting too much. I'm a huge fan of most of the Elephant 6 stable, and was blown over by the single "Don't Ask Me To Explain." But while this is pleasant and catchy enough, nothing else on the album quite measures up to that single (though a few ditties come close, most notably the painfully infectious "I Can't Stop Your Memory"). This album falls somewhere between the pleasant pop of Apples in Stereo and the psychedelic experimentalism of Olivia Tremor Control, but falls a bit short of both. Not that I want to sell this short -- if you're a sucker for the Smile-era Beach Boys-derived naive pop championed by the Apples, Olivia, Elf Power, Beulah, et al., this will go down just fine -- if anything, this is probably the closest thing to mid-60's Brian Wilson put out so far by any of these bands. But the stripped-down minimalism of the sound and the calculated amateurishness of the performance and vocals occasionally distracts from the charm, which I don't think was the intent.