Top Five Reasons to Give Skeletal Lamping a Second Chance

of Montreal – “Plastis Wafers”
(from Skeletal Lamping)

When Skeletal Lamping first leaked back in August, I was ecstatic. Sure, the final tracklist didn’t turn out exactly how we predicted, but still, it was a new of Montreal album and I was a happy man.

And then I listened to it. And it completely lost me.

I tried really hard to like it, but it was such a weird fucking album — moments of Sunlandic Twins pop brilliance would be eclipsed by jarring squalls of noise or non sequitor falsetto squeals and there was just no making heads or tails of what the hell was going on. Of Montreal have made weird albums before (see The Gay Parade or If He Is Protecting Our Nation, Who Is Protecting Our Oil? for reference), but after the mind-blowing awesomeness of Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? and Icons, Abstract Thee I had high expectations; instead, I was just puzzled.

But because I’m a fan, and because I’m so geeked out for their show at the Pageant tonight, I decided to give Skeletal Lamping another shot. I feel like I was struck by lightning. Maybe I needed to give it some time to soak, but right now it’s sounding absolutely astounding to these ears. There’s so much going on in the album — musically, philosophically, pornographically — that to try and capture it all in a review would be to fall down a proverbial rabbit hole and never see the light again. Instead, I want to enumerate some of the reasons my reaction to Skeletal Lamping has gone from WTF to ZOMFGWTFBBQ!

1. It’s just like the Fiery Furnaces, and it’s no secret that I love the Fiery Furnaces. But whereas Matthew Friedberger hashes out his promethean pop collages with nods to Pete Townshend, Jelly Roll Morton, and Rudyard Kipling; Kevin Barnes is applying that same technique to the works of Prince, Sly Stone, and Georges Bataille. Why restrict yourself to the three-minute pop song format when you can use the recording studio to cut-and-paste a hyperactive assault on the senses that calls on all your idols simultaneously?

of Montreal – “Tropical Iceland/And She Was” (Fiery Furnaces/Talking Heads cover)

There may not be great “songs” on this album, but there are great moments. For instance, “Plastis Wafers” may not work as a radio single, but the part from 0:32 to 1:17 is pure bliss. Alternately, the movement from one song to the next can create something altogether new and wonderful. The unofficial suite of songs that stretches from “For Our Elegant Caste” into “Touched Something’s Hollow” into the first half of “An Eluardian Instance” creates something playful, vulnerable, and peculiarly interdependent. It’s a roller coaster ride, but it works.

2. It’s just like Prince. For two reasons:

2a. It’s not fair to judge of Montreal solely as an indie rock band. When Hissing Fauna came out, it felt like the 21st century equivalent of Sly & the Family Stone’s There’s a Riot Goin’ On or David Bowie’s Station to Station — a plastic soul masterpiece seeped in paranoia and existential self-doubt. Skeletal Lamping feels like Prince’s Sign O’ the Times taking a stroll through “Paisley Park” — more upbeat, unabashedly sexual, and totally schizophrenic.

of Montreal – “Raspberry Beret” (Prince cover)

2b. Kevin Barnes’ middle-aged, black shemale alter ego, Georgie Fruit, is the heir apparent to Prince’s devilishly seductive and ambiguously sexual alter ego Camille. Not familiar with Camille? Read this. Switch out a few of the proper nouns and it’s like you’re reading an of Montreal history. Lazier journalists and even Wikipedia have compared Georgie Fruit to Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust, but they’re just scratching the surface. Still, it takes some hefty cojones to pull of this kind of conceit, and for that I applaud him/her.

of Montreal – “Baby I’m a Star” (Prince cover)
(Recorded live at last year’s Pageant show!)

3. Okay, it is a little like Bowie. The persona reconstructions, the elaborate stage set-ups, the unmistakable scent of genius. But the analogy only works thematically; musically, I’m not really getting it this time. Not complaining, just sayin’.

of Montreal – “Suffragette City” (David Bowie cover)

4. It’s just like Kevin Barnes. Skeletal Lamping is an unapologetically pretentious, narcissistic celebration of Barnes by Barnes. And you know what, I’m totally cool with that. Rock music thrives on self-involved superstars who take ridiculous chances. This whole album is full of creative risks and overreaching, and while it’s by no means a stone cold classic, it’s the awkward and uncomfortable moments that make it feel that much more human and honest. Probably the most incredible thing is that the ego that went into this record is only matched by the musicianship that backs it up. No amount of technical skill can make up for a lack of charisma, but Barnes has both in spades.

of Montreal – “Id Engager”

5. The merch. I thought nothing could top the Nina Totin’ Bag; I was wrong.

Anyone else have a religious conversion with Skeletal Lamping? Anyone go from thinking it was a’ight and then learned to hate it? Spill your guts in the comments… and I’ll see you at the show in a little bit!