Search - Of Montreal :: Skeletal Lamping

Skeletal Lamping
Of Montreal
Skeletal Lamping
Genres: Alternative Rock, Pop, Rock
 
  •  Track Listings (15) - Disc #1

Their breakthrough, "Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?" catapulted the band to the upper echelon of indie stardom. The record landed on over thirty major year-end lists including Paste, Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, and As...  more »

     
4

Larger Image

CD Details

All Artists: Of Montreal
Title: Skeletal Lamping
Members Wishing: 0
Total Copies: 0
Label: Polyvinyl Records
Original Release Date: 1/1/2008
Re-Release Date: 10/21/2008
Genres: Alternative Rock, Pop, Rock
Style: Indie & Lo-Fi
Number of Discs: 1
SwapaCD Credits: 1
UPCs: 644110016027, 644110016096

Synopsis

Product Description
Their breakthrough, "Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?" catapulted the band to the upper echelon of indie stardom. The record landed on over thirty major year-end lists including Paste, Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, and Associated Press, and sold over 100,000 copies. "Skeletal Lamping" also delivers. It's a complicated and dense thrill ride packed with slinky grooves. Unpredictable, unique, and epic. Includes 32-panel fold-out/pop-up art piece by David Barnes and Gemini Tactics. Double LP on 180 gram vinyl includes giant die-cut poster exclusive to the LP.

Similarly Requested CDs

 

CD Reviews

Skeletal Lamping
Andrew Vice | Plano, TX | 10/21/2008
(5 out of 5 stars)

"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."
One Big Girl Talk-esque Mashup of Poppy Goodness
Adam Rechkemmer | Oswego, IL USA | 10/22/2008
(4 out of 5 stars)

"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!"
SCHIZOPHRENIC, PSYCHEDELIC, VULGAR, FUNNY, SEXUAL, DARK, SHI
Rafael Cova | Caracas, Venezuela | 11/14/2008
(5 out of 5 stars)

"Whatever you want!!!

Open your mind and enjoy, because this album is SO WEIRD. Let's make clear, If there's one thing to be said about "Kevin Barnes a.k.a. / alter ego Georgie Fruit", it's that he has never been afraid to do exactly what he wants with his music and his art, perverting US indie for more than ten years, with his mix of electronic psychedelia and 1980's funk-pop. On his ninth album, he has shifted the focus back to his wicked side.

"Skeletal Lamping", the band's new album, in which he takes on bizarro personas tackling every facet of love and relationships, from the freaky stuff behind closed doors to just plain heartache. It's by far the densest, most rhythmic, most carnal and most epic release from Of Montreal yet.

Barnes has made it known that the album centers on his alter ego Georgie Fruit, who is in his late 40s, a black man who has been through multiple sex changes. He's been a man and a woman, and then back to a man. He's been to prison a couple of times.

Organized more as an all-night dance mix rather than by individual tracks, the songs feature tempos that quicken, then slow and take hairpin turns. Pseudo-singles "Nonpareil of Favor" and "Id Engager" bookend the collection, while the gooey center is a mishmash of fuzzy trip-hop and schizophrenic desires mostly plucked from the late '70s. Tempos and moods shift with jittery speed, echoing his altering mental states. The biggest surprise, however, comes early on when he drops the personas for his most honest song to date, Touched Something's Hollow.

On his blog, Barnes has talked about how lamping is a practice wherein hunters illuminate woodland in order to flush out game, and that Skeletal Lamping is an attempt to do the same with his personal demons. That would seem correct: this record is the filth and the scum, the hopes and the fears, the perversion and the innocence of one brilliant, dissolute mind, blasting forth like a natural disaster. Some people are going to think this is a masterpiece, the equal of Hissing Fauna. Others will call it a self indulgent mess that pushes indie-rock somewhere it really wasn't meant to go.

Personally, I LIKE A LOT."