As the title suggests, Of Montreal's latest finds
Kevin Barnes shining a light on the skeletons in his closet, and as expected,
they come out to dance all over Skeletal Lamping. There's the inner queer,
the outward straight, the hopeless romantic, and the backward bondage freak,
along with Barnes' heretofore closeted white rapper, as well as alter ego
Georgie Fruit, a fortysomething transsexual black soul singer. Much will be
made of this album's overt sexuality (filled with lines like, "Lover-face, I
want to make you ejaculate until it's no longer fun"), but the subject matter
isn't surprising, especially after Mr. Fruit let the banana out of the basket
in Las Vegas last year. What's truly at stake here is identity. Last time,
Barnes documented his mental breakdown; in Lamping, he pours his mixed-up
marbles onto the table to take stock. Naturally, the music is tailor-made for
such insanity.
"Nonpareil Of Favor" opens the album with baroque
harpsichord while Barnes croons like a Marc Bolan prone to Queen-y histrionics.
A minute later, he and the band are aping OutKast's "Hey Ya!", then Sgt.
Pepper's,
then arena rock, and finally No Age, with a massive wall of guitar that crests
over a lazy groove. "Wicked Wisdom" comes next, wherein Barnes yelps like
Prince, transmutes into Georgie ("I'm just a black she-male / and I don't know
what you people are all about / chalky people"), and does Hot Chip almost
better than Hot Chip. Most songs start with a barrage of mini movements, find
aural stasis, then give in to stylistic onslaught. It's physically tiring at
times, but immaculately arranged. That's less true of Barnes' lyrics. While his
words are lysergically colorful and often poetic, any greater meaning is
dissolved in an acid bath of too much information. Lamping has its salient moments,
but after nine albums and having seen Barnes' private bits, it'd be nice to get
to know the guy a little better.