Review:

on 2011-12-07 CharlesMartel Said:

The story goes that Kevin Barnes, vocalist, guitarist, occasional keyboard player and general all round driving force behind of Montreal was experiencing some personal problems during the middle of the last decade. Like many an artist before and since, he sought the catharsis of his art to help him overcome his problems. Nothing wrong in that. Many artists, in these circumstances, would put out a work which could be termed introspective or thoughtful. Full blown depressives like Ian Curtis would have gone for the ultra-miserable while the real 100 degrees proof bi-polars would have cut of their ear like Vincent Van Gogh.

What does Kevin Barnes do? He writes an album full of party songs. Now if you are attempting to cheer yourself up, it probably is a good idea to do something like that than create an album full of covers of Joy Division songs, but if you are not in the mood for this it can quickly become annoying. And boy does "Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?" get annoying. The album has a duality to it  lightweight indie pop and retro seventies glam pop  all providing the backdrop for Barnes self-obsessed lyrics. It is hard to tell which aspect of the album is the most annoying.

The main reason for this is that, for an album written by a depressive, it lacks insight, it lacks feeling and above all it lacks depth. Maybe it was genuinely an attempt to feel better for Barnes, but I just cannot get through the fact that this is so thin and lightweight it is almost the epitome of throwaway. This is something you can dance to at a party but offers you nothing more than that. If that is all you want from music, fine, but when I listen to an album which is highly regarded I feel I have a right to expect something which offers me an alternative to a four-four beat under a veneer of music and words to pretty the beat up.

"The Past Is a Grotesque Animal" perhaps comes closest to this and clearly is a track which allows Barnes to give some space to his recent past, but to allow it to drag on for nearly twelve minutes is frankly enough to tax the patience of a saint. But then, isn't this just another rehash of eighties electropop with song titles which are overly long and smack of something deep and meaningful when in fact they all mean nothing at all?
Rating: 3/10

Review:

on 2007-08-22 SolitaryMan Said:

My initial thought about this album was 'If all pop music sounded like this, I'd love pop music". Dennis summed it all up, but I can tell you and the other readers why these guys won't break out in the way the Shins, Decemberists and other similar artists have: creative ADHD. Not a bad thing at all, but such a panorama of styles and directions will leave those crowds generally confused, I think. Regardless, here is an album that represents, for me at least, what good can be done with a "be catchy or die" attitude, gallons of creative juices and an unsuspecting audience. Everyone should hear this record.
Rating: 10/10