If you followed of Montreal down their Hissing Fauna/Skeletal Lamping rabbit holes, you’ll be prepared for their Jon Brion-produced soul-and-R&B-influenced (aka Parliament-nodding) 10th album False Priest. You get the ambitious post-’90s oM pastiche — anyone remember the relatively calm waters of The Gay Parade? — but in smoother form. Compositionally, there are plenty of twists and turns, just not always in the span of a single measure. In return, they’ve upped Kevin Barnes’ schizo comedy. (After taking in “Our Riotous Defects” or the start of “You Do Mutilate?” you’ll wonder when he plans to start a career in Flight Of The Conchords-esque stand up, though, you have to appreciate what Barnes is doing. Indie rock doesn’t have much of a sense of humor.) Of course, the biggest angle folks are taking on False Priest is the participation of Janelle Monáe (and to a lesser degree, the lesser Solange Knowles.)
The female vocal accompaniment works well (see the airy ending to “Our Riotous Defects,” the “Islands In The Stream” of “Sex Karma“), but in the end it’s Kevin Barnes’s show — he and his gonzo technicolor sensibility remain the center of the spotlit funhouse. At times you wish he’d keep the monologues to a minimum, the rich sound of the well-turned compositions notched-down via too many of those pan-sexual one liners. Yes, much of False Priest is ridiculous. oM have always been ridiculous — your enjoyment of these 53 minutes can often depend on whether you ever had a Ween phase and how much you can deal with funk and soul parody and hokey James Brown affectations. You’ve likely already heard “Hydra Fancies” and “Coquet Coquette” (and that “Enemy Gene” snippet) so you have an idea of what to expect.
There are good lines (“If I treated someone else the way I treat myself / I’d be in jail,” the connection between protests, Bowflex, color contacts, and a gal’s “stupid little blog”), hooks (see the relatively understated “Enemy Gene”), and compelling moments. But for all the things Barnes stuffs into False Priest, at times it lacks an actual heart. Or seems like a formal exercise. Even so, it’s more consistently enjoyable than Skeletal Lamping, though it can’t reach the same bliss as the careening glam pop on Hissing Fauna. That may go back to the heart thing: Hissing Fauna‘s ADD-addled shifts were grounded in Barnes’ own broken relationship, his attempts to sift through the aftermath. For False Priest he mentioned wanting to channeling the R&B musicians he admires and then channeling his alternate personalities. Maybe this made it too schizophrenic? More about textures and characters than tangible emotions? When Barnes stopped by for a Progress Report he mentioned trying to write songs while drunk. Maybe that’s it? Or, to quote False Priest‘s “Like A Tourist,” maybe Barnes got stuck fetishizing the archetype and lost a bit of himself in the process.
False Priest is out 9/14 via Polyvinyl.
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You are one lucky motherfucker.
well, i thoroughly enjoy this album. it’s completely funny, catchy, and head-bopping. having said that, i do NOT want of montreal to keep making albums like this.
I’d consider this a masterpiece if it really is more consistently enjoyable than “Skeletal Lamping,” but I get the feeling that that isn’t as much a compliment to this reviewer as it is to myself.
I’d agree on the general placement of this album (far) above Skeletal Lamping and a bit below Hissing Fauna, though I’m not sure I’d say it lacks heart. “Heimdalsgate…” and “The Past is a Grotesque Animal” definitely examine Barnes’ troubles, but for the most part, the album is pop fun. False Priest definitely pushes oM’s silliness to new extremes, but Coquette Coquette, Famine Affair, and even Our Riotous Defects explore the “sad love” Kevin’s always been going on about.
So yeah, good stuff. Not their best, but a big step back in the right direction. Sex Karma is utterly, utterly fantastic.
pop fun? How about: “Are you far too depressed now / to even answer the phone? / I guess you just want to / Shave your head, have a drink, and be left alone (Is that too much to ask?)”
The songs may have sounded “fun”, but the lyrics on Hissing Fauna were very specific and powerful because they were about a real world conflict. When Kevin shifted into Georgie Fruit, it was a defense mechanism to distract himself from his pain. There was something real about the schizophrenic nature of Hissing Fauna’s back half– By suppressing his problems instead of dealing with them, Kevin ended up in an even more unstable place.
Now that the real life conflict with his wife has been settled, this Georgie Fruit character and the music he makes seem a bit unnecessary. Instead of being Kevin Barnes’ unstable, imaginary hiding place, the music now just seems to be Kevin Barnes stringing together as many provocative sounding phrases as he can.
Don’t get me wrong, I found Skeletal Lamping (and for the most part, this new one) to be IMMENSELY entertaining. And when it comes to stringing together provocative sounding phrases that reference college level math, literature and philosophy, no one does it better. But 2.5 albums into this, it’s getting a little stagnant. Even if he doesn’t come out with another record as powerful as Hissing Fauna (which I’m fine with, I don’t want Kevin to be that sad!) I think he needs to take a hard look in the Eagle-Shaped Mirror, find a way to shed this Georgie Fruit character and write an album that doesn’t lean so hard on these prince-ish joke things.
That’s fair. I’m with you and David Worthington up there. False Priest is great, but it doesn’t sound like they’re going to get back to the Satanic/Sunlandic/Hissing career high anytime soon. But even though it doesn’t have Hissing Fauna’s emotional depth, I still think there’s heart here.
Anyway, I can’t say I’m disappointed. It’s a solid album, and an improvement over their last. Lucky to have it.
“The music now just seems to be Kevin Barnes stringing together as many provocative sounding phrases as he can.” I think you have just wrapped up my thoughts about any of Montreal album post-Hissing Fauna. They just seem unnecessary, yet they are hugely entertaining and way better than what any other artist is doing, depressed or not. I, for one, support Kevin Barnes doing however many albums he wants as long as he keeps his genius lines and awesome pseudo-psychedelic catchy music.
And, if anybody didn’t like Skeletal Lamping, I suggest you give it another listen. It’s the work of a mad genius!
Here’s my review of False Priest: http://thestrangulation.wordpress.com/2010/08/28/false-priest-of-montreal/
Tangible emotions? Kind of like “trying to keep my parents together, and through their chaos there was such pressure to score high, so I had to drop it, as if I stood a chance after my uncle’s suicide, everybody looking at me to succeed him as the family’s golden myth while my identity mutations were being dosed by books and all the drugs. I tried to prove I was brave, but I was so afraid.”
False Priest won’t equal Hissing Fauna, but you can’t expect him to write an album anything like it again. If he did you’d say he was trite.
This album is one of my top 5 favorite albums of all time. Quite possibly the best Of Montreal album yet; they just keep getting better and better. (I seem to be the only person in the world that prefers Skeletal Lamping to Hissing Fauna.) Not that earlier albums like Satanic Panic and Coquelicot aren’t great as well, but in terms of having a consistent set of amazingly well-written songs and imaginative production (helped out by Jon Brion’s pop sheen,) this album is the hands down winner. There is not a single wasted moment on the album. (Well, maybe a millisecond or two here and there.)
I’m with you on Skeletal Lamping. I never understood criticism of the album. To me, it’s completely amazing: my favorite of their releases!
“…you have to appreciate what Barnes is doing. Indie rock doesn’t have much of a sense of humor.”
have you actually been worrying about “indie rock” – whatever you choose to define it as – not representing humor?
if you can’t hear the ‘heart’ in songs like Sex Karma or Enemy Gene i feel bad for you, square. Why is it that that poor old Kev can’t get critical praise for trying to express joy and euphoria in his songs?
Enemy Gene has some of Barnes’ best lyrics yet… it’s also an examination of his own obsessions with filthy, visceral sexuality and how that can get in the way of pure love.
He’s saying some genuinely insightful, universal things in that song.
Sure, there’s plenty of nonsense on this album, too, but y’all should take a closer look.
This album is a blast, especially I Feel Ya Strutter and Coquet Coquette, which has a darn strange video up at their website. It seems to me to bog down toward the last few tracks, but I need to give it another listen.
Also, there’s no such thing as a Ween phase. There’s just those who have seen the light and those who haven’t.
Is everyone insane?!
Ok, first of all. I don’t understand how ANYONE can not put Skeletal Lamping at the top of their list. Its a fucking opus, with so many ideas packed into an hour long album, insanely beautiful transitions and some of the most incredible arrangements I’ve ever heard. It’s untouchable. Now for False Priest…
When Coquet Coquet leaked a few months back I was a little disappointed to be honest. I mean, don’t get me wrong, its epic, its catchy, the bass guitar is amazing (as always), but it was a relatively straight forward song that seemed to be more about 4 minute pop song thats easy to digest than blowing our minds with pop genius. When the album originally leaked I didn’t want to listen to it, I wanted to give it a fair chance in all of its hi-fi glory, so i waited. This week I downloaded the non Skype rip version of the album.
I really wanted them to surpass my now diminished expectations, and I Feel Ya Strutter gave me hope, catchy, upbeat, good album opener. Our Riotous Defects… makes me want to puke. And while there are some incredible moments on this album, Hyra Fantasies, Enemy Gene, Famine Affair, and even Coquet Coquet is growing on me, this album comes as a disappointment. I was hoping David Barnes would move further into the schizophrenic structuring of pop snippets into full blown musical epics, with unexpected key changes, guised lyrics, and overall beautiful insanity, but he regressed into writing simply structured pop songs. And regressed isn’t even fair, since I don’t think Mr. Barnes has ever been this predictable.
This is after 3 straight listens. I’m hoping my opinion changes. I hope it grows on me. I think David Barnes is a goddamn genius and I hope that I’m just missing something! But for right now, I just don’t get it.
*Kevin
I don’t think I’m as disappointed as yourself, but I do think that this is nowhere near as good as “Skeletal Lamping” or “Hissing Fauna.” Like yourself, I vehemently disagree with the apparent consensus that “Skeletal Lamping” was a weak album which this one easily surpasses.
“Plastis Wafers” in particular is brilliant. I don’t see how anyone could claim THAT song lacks heart, or that the jarring changes are a bad thing in that context.
Ouch… dammit… now who will ever take me seriously. disregard my temporary stupidity.
I knew what you meant, but I think you had David Byrne on the mind.
This album is as weak as Aldhils Arboretum. Their last four albums are pure greatness. And I also agree, I think Skeletal Lamping is amazing.