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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
One Big Girl Talk-esque Mashup of Poppy Goodness, October 21, 2008
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!
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13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Skeletal Lamping, October 21, 2008
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.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Like every great album ever made...., November 6, 2008
the initial listen is a bit of a feeler, maybe even a bit of "what is all this mess?"
the second listen, you are still not quite sure.
somewhere in the 3-5th listenings, it clicks.
this album is genius and magnificent. complex and broad in stature, it deserves a few listens before giving up on it, like every great album.
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