A few months ago I was driving my car down a country road, blasting the radio, the sun shining on my face, when I heard one of my favorite songs come on. Weird, I thought, that they would be playing Of Montreal, a notable indie pop band on a classic rock station- let alone, any station at all. Even weirder yet? The song was jingle-ized. A strange urge to run my car into a ditch came over me as the original lyrics: "Let's pretend we don't exist, let's pretend we're in Antarctica" became nothing more than steak-selling propaganda: "Let's go Outback tonight, life will still be there tomorrow."
Having that said, my personal expectations for Of Montreal's new album, "Hissing Fauna Are You the Destroyer?" which was released on Jan. 23, were exceptionally low. Apparently, I was exceptionally wrong. The emotionally driven lyrics and sinister synthesizer chords make this album rawer than Outback's steaks. It is without a doubt the most the most melancholy, yet mature work to come from the band in its 10-year history.
Perhaps this is because it was produced in a period which singer/songwriter Kevin Barnes refers to as "an insane year." Around the time of the release of the band's last album, 2005's "The Sunlandic Twins," things began to spiral downward in Barnes personal life. He moved to Norway with his wife, Nina, in order to have their baby there and, because of completely unfamiliar surroundings, Barnes fell into a deep depression. Things only got worse for Barnes when he returned to the U.S. He and Nina separated and she went back to Norway to stay with her family, taking their baby daughter with her. It was during this time that Barnes poured all of his misery and sadness into "Hissing Fauna."
Of Montreal is a straight up pop band. In the past, they have rarely dwelled on negativity. For the most part, all of their seven other albums are whimsical, upbeat, and hopeful, with simple lyrics pertaining to things like Yorkshire Terriers, trips to England, and parties.
The critically acclaimed "Hissing Fauna," on the other hand, proves that Of Montreal can master doom and gloom. Lyrics like "I'm in a crisis, I need help, c'mon mood shift, shift back to good again," from the album's single, "Heimdalsgate Like a Promethean Curse," show that Of Montreal has versatility- they are capable of much more than mindless pop songs, and not all bands are not blessed with this ability.
The album represents Barnes' twisted, perhaps drug induced quest (as the lyrics "Chemicals don't strangle my pen, chemicals don't make me sick again," suggest) to find a lover with "soul power." Rightfully considered by most to be a "break-up album," it begins with optimism, and naturally progresses through a complicated wasteland of helplessness, bitterness, contempt, and finally, superiority and the power to rise above the situation.
Just because the songs are of a completely different nature doesn't mean the band has lost its trademark glamour and sparkle. The sing-along quality of the band's older songs is consistent with every track, only it is achieved through a questioning and cynical, rather than cheerful, tone. One of the catchiest songs on the album, boasts, "How you wanna take my style when I am so sooo superior? How you wanna hate a thing when you are sooo inferior?"
Perhaps I was wrong to lose faith in a band that has never ceased to amaze me. Bottom line: "Hissing Fauna" is, by all means, impressive.
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