Hi this is Obed, im gonna talk about OF MONTREAL today, the guys who made, well the really great album in 2010; False Priest. They are a really HUGE band well besides Arcade fire with the same amount of people as them. Eight Exactly well if they didn't add anymore recently but thats not likely. The band is from Athens, Georgia and they are like the art suggests a very puculiar band. This album has a certain weirdness in it just look at the album cover (not the one i photo edited) also the stuff they made in this album are alot harder to really dig but you know after a few listens you will like it/appreciate it. Anyway in my opinion they changed theyre sound a little more than in false priest, well false priest was a little more pop influenced. Track review: (track list from the official site of of montreal, nice pun huh? no? yeah, i guess it sucked)
1. Gelid Ascent: "I came to this place to jam but i got on acid and my hearing became scrambled and all i heard was mixed and the colors were changing by the second" thats what this track is speaking to meits just saying that. Thats a good way to put it the music does get less "trippy" though and then after awhile it returns to that original "trip" but i hardly say its a bad trip.
2. Spiteful Intervention: Just listening to the lyrics it kind of reflects most of what most of the nation/world is feeling the lyrics are very clever and yes the music is really sprawled around the song. The most notable thing is probably the lyrics, the ever-changing atmosphere of music, and the really groovy bass that you can hear in False Priest. The progression is great and although it’s a harder song to get into its really cleaver and artistic.
3. Dour Percentage:
This is the most listened to song from the new album according to the stats on Last.fm (last time I checked anyway) and I really don’t see why. Sure there’s really good singing and the sax is really smooth in the song. The flutes are really great in the background but the song is very tame. It’s not as revolutionary as the first two song teeming with ambition and in your face with psychedelic colors.
4. We Will Commit Wolf Murder: ok so I’ve noticed that the really scrambled music in the beginning of each of these songs are a reoccurring element in this album. This song is a little bit more upbeat and the drumming is scrambled (it kind of sounds like my crappy remixes ha ha) well most of the music is really scrambled. The most notable word in this song is “reptilian” it’s a reoccurring theme in a lot of albums like Reptilians by Starf*cker and The People’s Key by Bright Eyes and is it just me or is this kind of creepy? Since I’m not really describing the song anymore but the theme, I can also note a really soothing Symphony that gets murdered by the scrambling of music and a really sharp transition henceforth and it really never recovers from that and it totally kills the mood of the song.
5. Malefic Dowery: The song transition from the song before is a little rough if it wasn’t for the slight change in the end of the other song I wouldn’t be able to listen to anymore with my feet tapping. The song is very thin for Of Montreal especially when his vocals are the only thing you can hear. I hear some Café Tacvba in this song or at least you can hear Spanish style guitar influencing the guitar playing here.
6. Ye, Renew the Plaintiff: Ok the scrambling gets annoying after awhile, what saves the song is the incredible transitions, if not for that this album would be total crap. This song is a little hard to get into its very scatterbrained. It’s a fairly long song for traditional songs style but its really great the guitars actually have drive and the drums are stomping away. What really hooks me to this track is the really great guitar licks around halfway through the song but the “ahhhhs” really are a turn off. This song should really be split into a different song after 4:45 because it really is a completely different beat and feel.
7. Wintered Debts:
Well it starts off very thin with only vocals and acoustic but knowing Of Montreal it can’t stay the same for longer than 30 seconds. The song kind of reminds me of Pavement/Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks. The vocals, the guitar, the transitions, they really remind me of those bands. The Thing about this song that’s different from the song before is the song is constant it doesn’t do a complete 180 degree turn in the style halfway thru the song but it does have some sort of little transition like that when the song only has 50 seconds remaining. It kind of reminds me of the transition that happens in Kid A in the song Motion Picture Soundtrack.
8. Exorcismic Breeding Knife:
It gets lame after a while listening to the same reoccurring theme in the songs the problem with this song is that its long but the transitions aren’t as good and the repetition sucks the life out of the song. The most notable thing in the song is well the ending ironically.
9. Authentic Pyrrhic Remission: This song sounds fun. The intro is cool and I can already tap my feet to the beat even if it’s changing a lot. The song is has good feel its not so thick and it isn’t thin its really revolving around that becoming thick then thin but in like a matter of seconds. The song is really long about 13 minutes long. There’s repetition but there is so much going on that it seems short and it may not be so up beat but you can groove to this you can really groove to it. After 5:30 it kind of dies though. They give you a drop of acid and then and you proceed to have a “bad trip” because the music is so static and it just keeps screeching for the longest time until 10:41 then it becomes softer and the thin soothing vocals ease you and help you forget the “bad trip” you had.
Verdict: The album is really good. This album has to get a couple of listens to actually finally appreciate because in between the scrambled music and ever-changing, transition filled songs there is a theme and an art and this band is one of the very few bands remaining that are artistic they aren't making crappy music and crappy lyrics. No this band can grab stuff like looping/scrambling music (something i can do with my really amature-ish dj skills) and make that sound feel and sound like it belongs.
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