Customer Reviews

Coquelicot Asleep in the Poppies: A Variety of

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

 

 

Words are not sufficient to describe the glorious poppy weirdness of Of Montreal's "Coquelicot Asleep in the Poppies: A Variety of Whimsical Verse." While this band is on the second string of Elephant 6 bands, it's among the best ones -- upbeat, surreal, whimsical and gloriously peculiar.

It opens with the perky piano-pop "Good Morning Mr. Endminton" and follows up with the tinkling "Peacock Parasols" and eerie acoustic-guitar "Look at the Bell." The perky bouncy pop angle is taken care of by songs like the rollicking "Introduction to Isabell" and the bizarre, funny "Rose Robert," and the sparkling instrumental number "Coquelicot, Claude and Lecithin Dance Aboad the Ocean Liner," which is only a minute long. "Mimi Merlot" is one of the most entertaining songs, ending with the unique line, "Mimi Merlot you're the most convincingly non-fictitious character that I know."

But chirrupy pop is not all Of Montreal has to offer. Quieter songs are mixed in as well, like the surreally romantic "Let's Do Everything for the First Time," the sweet string ballad "It's a Very Starry Night," and the sprawling, mood-swinging piano-led epic -- clocking in at eighteen minutes -- "Hopeless Opus or the Great Battle of the Unfriendly Ridiculous," which even offers a nudge-wink homage to fellow band Marshmallow Coast.

There are also a couple of mildly experimental songs -- "Upon Settling on the Frozen Island, Lecithin Presents Claude and Coquelicot with his Animal Creations" has nothing but women's voices cooing "Oh yes! Oh yes!" with men replying mournfully "Oh no! Oh no!" There are slurps, silly high-pitched singing, wails, and whispers about pornographic mags. "Lecithin's Tale of a DNA Experiment That Went Horribly Awry" is half-song, half spoken story about horrifying hyena-cicada hybrids that eat little children. "Events Leading Up to the Collapse of Detective Dulllight" is a gloriously warped, surreal take on murder mysteries.

There's a concept album feel to "Coquelicot Asleep in the Poppies," although I'm not sure if it is really meant to tell a story. Whether it does or not, it effectively serves as a door to another world where butterflies sing, cats walk upright, robotic aquatic bees are developed, and filing cabinets are found in a detective's brain. There's nothing even remotely normal about it, and that's what makes it fun -- it's like a wild, crazy, colorful dream burned into a CD.

At times the songwriting sounds a bit gruesome -- after all, one song is about monstrous hybrids eating the children of a village. Or rather, it would be gruesome if it weren't so funny. At times the songs sound like they were put together from random surrealist images, like "Let's reminisce of our first dance together/along the ocean floor/Your dress was made of egg shells/My hair was in a pompadour."

Kevin Barnes has a lovely voice. Well, it doesn't get too much of a workout, but it's pleasant and mellow, and he sounds like he's having a great time. Moreover, he does the spoken parts well. Backing him up is Dotti Alexander, who does a glorious job on keyboards; Jamie Huggins who does some solid drums, and a variety of colorful instruments that add to the fun, dreamy atmosphere.

"Coquelicot Asleep in the Poppies: A Variety of Whimsical Verse" is one of those albums that is completely divorced from the mundane and dreary. Fun, upbeat, bizarre and utterly engaging from beginning to end. This deserves to be a classic among indierock/pop bands.

I don't mind music challenging me, but this one just never paid off. There's some great songs here such as "Penelope" and "Day Dareaming of You" and even "The Event's Leading..."

This album is a collection of oddities that piece together. I don't know what they're supposed to form once whole. There was also a lack of "tightness" within the songs. I just had a hard time with it. I have everything else Of Montreal has done so far, and I love each albums (even the Early 4-Track Collection).

If you're debating between this and another Of Montreal album, I'd recommend you skip this one unless you're very adventurous.

On first listen I thought "...man,this is so stupid?" but as soon as the second listen came around it was just off the hook crazy good, I don't know why I changed my mind like that about this CD but it just turned out that way. It's kinda like a Musical Play but in there style, like pretty much every song talks about the same thing although you don't get bored because with Of Montreal they do a lot of tempo changes so your more focused at the music than anything else really. 22 Songs so it's defenitly takes awhile to get through it but it's all worth it, plus there are some really funny stuff on this disc but I don't want to give it away




Buy It Or Forever Suffer The Consiquence Which Is Missing Out!

Like a lot of people, I didn't become aware of the wonderful Of Montreal until The Sunlandic Twins erupted on the indie scene. I fell in love with that album and it's follow-up, Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer. Then, I decided to dig a little deeper into their back catalogue. The first album I bought from the older era was The Bedside Drama. At first, I was very confused, I thought for a second, maybe the wrong CD had been put in the case. It is about as opposite musically from their newer stuff as can possibly be. At first I didn't like it, but it slowly grew on me. Now, I rank it as another of my favorites from Of Montreal.

Once I got accustomed to their older sound, I went on a bit of a spree and bought all of their album and listened to them in order. Each one had something that I found to like on it... until I got to this album.

When I first put this album on, I didn't like it at all. I even said to myself, "Wow, this is my least favorite for sure." I continued on my merry way and listened to all of their albums. Then I decided to go back to this one because I felt that there had to be something that I needed to unlock about this album. It took a few listens but then, it just clicked. I think it took listening to it with headphones to finally get all the intricate layers and odd arrangements on this albums. Now, I rank this album as my all time favorite Of Montreal album.

This albums is a studio marvel. I couldn't even fathom all of the work and endless hours that must have went into getting all of the craziness to fall into place on this album. To be honest, it has a bit of a schizo feel to it. Songs shift tempos and feels and even genres with the drop of a hat. A good example is the end of the song "Mimi Merlot" where it repeats the same line, "Mimi Merlot, you're the most convincingly non-fictitious character that I know." It says it three times, the first being a fairly straight forward rocking rendition, then it suddenly switches to western swing and does it again, then the last one is very dreamy and languid. Very odd arrangements indeed.

The highlights of this album are plentiful. The afore-mentioned "Mimi Merlot" is fun. My other favorites would be "Peacock Parasols", "Let's Do Everything For The First Time Forever", "Rose Robert" (listen for the awesome guitar part in that one), "Penelope", "Hello From Inside A Shell", "It's Just So", and my very favorite, "The Frozen Island" which has an AMAZING bass groove at the end. The rest of the album is fun too. It forms a very loose, odd story about fairies and DNA experiments. I can't figure it out, but it sure is fun trying. The lyrics of this album are so weird and grin inducing that you can't help but love them. There's even a few spoken word only parts of this album.

In summary, DO NOT START WITH THIS ALBUM!!! Start with a more conventional (that word is used loosely with regards to Of Montreal) album. This album takes a while to materialize in the ol' noodle, but when it does, you will love it. Just be patient.

I'm surprised this is the first I've heard of this band...and to overstate things a bit, my pessimism may never be the same. I didn't intend this, I just sat back and was suddenly listening to the sound of nihilism melting away; I felt both addressed and entertained by the most mature, progressive, and charmingly disarming Indie music I can point to in a room overstuffed with CDs. All of which makes the album's long, last, and only slightly more "serious" track (a piano suite) well deserved by the band -- you're glad to grant the creator a listen. Among Of Montreal's more obvious influences (Elephant 6 groups) there is some definite Stackridge here in the vibes and artistic articulation. A lovely irony, this gently sophisticated funfest from the city that's also given us such beautiful but heavy/haunting sounds the past decade.
Postdate: Ah, so they're NOT from Montreal at all.

Of all of the Elephant 6 related bands, this is the best, with this album besting all of them. I've owned this record for a couple years, and after the first three listens I got a little fed up with it. The music is jarring, and the chord progressions are discordant. But then it gets better and better with each listen, just like the best records you've ever owned. The tunes start to grow on you, and soon enough, rather than being jarring and dischordant, Coquelicot becomes stimulating like a head rush - the music begins to fit together and the album accordians itself into this condensed package of pop and harmony.

Think early Pink Floyd - Bike song, or The Beachboys - Bicycle Rider. Or maybe even mix the two together. If that's not helpful, just think Beachboys Pet Sounds, but on some wild hallucinogenic drug.

You might buy Of Montreal's Gay Parade before you get this, though I did not. If you have the option of listening to any song by Of Montreal first, find "My Favorite Boxer" - its on Gay Parade.

First of all, this record was not what I expected. Not your typical indie record. Absent is the guitar distortion and hipster irony we come to expect from such artists. Of Montreal seems to be completely and utterly influenced by the Beatles middle period (Revolver, Pepper, Mystery Tour). The instrumentation is carnival-esque and the non-sequitor psychedelic concept album storyline is quite bizarre. You can just imagine them sitting in the studio saying, "Can we add a string quartet, a French horn and harpsichord in this song? Oh, yes we can".

You have to love some of the wordplay on this record. Look at some of the song titles: "The Events Leading Up to the Collapse of Detective Dulllight", "The Hopeless Opus or The Great Battle of the Unfriendly Ridiculous". The song called "Upon Settling on the Frozen Island, Lecithin Presents Claude and Coquelicot With His Animal Creations for them to Approve or Reject (The Rejected Inventions Walk Towards The Reverse Magnetizer)" is just the phrases "Oh Yes" and "Oh No" repeated for 67 seconds.

Let's face it: there are worse bands that someone would want to emulate (can you imagine a band devoted to Styx?) and I have to hand it to Of Montreal: they have kept this tradition surprisingly refresh. All-in-all, I have to admit that I like this record. I don't love it; some of that can get tedious (and it is a long record), but enjoyable. You have to appreciate the effort and creativity. It is very easy for a band to hide behind distortion, power chords and angst. It takes guts to re-invent Sgt. Pepper.

On a scale of 1 to 10 (1 being Styx's Kilroy Was Here and 10 being Led Zeppelin's Physical Graffiti), I give it a 6.5 - 7.0

Coquelicot is a great album for everyone. If you're going to only listen to one of Montreal album, make sure it is this one.

If you've heard things from "Satanic Panic" and on wards, this album will sound very different. If you've heard their earlier works, then the album will fit in. It is in my opinion their best album and most wonderful sounding piece of work. The story is brilliant.

Get lost in their melodies and adventures!

My personal fav. - Let's Go For A Walk
So touching.
All of the songs are great actually.
Funny, miniature stories, too.

This album is Of Montreal's Concept Piece, and it works quite effectively for about half an hour, then starts to grate a little. A triumph of style over substance, it's akin to eating a boxful of fruit loops cereal- it tastes sweet as all get out, but you feel quite sick afterwards.Nevertheless, I'm a huge fan of concept albums (Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Dark Side of the Moon, Kid A), so I give this album a more than fair four star rating. But then again I might just be on a sugar rush from listening to this album.