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Of Montreal "Gronlandic Edit"

Friday, January 5, 2007

The first half of the forthcoming Of Montreal record, Hissing Fauna, are You the Destroyer? was penned by Kevin Barnes during an extended Norwegian stay (to acquire health care for his recently born child). One song title includes the name of a Norwegian street, another lyric marks an event at a Swedish concert and retells the no doubt horrifying experience of listening to nothing but Black Metal for an entire winter. For our purposes here, “Gronlandic Edit” (mp3) takes its name from a country that could stake a claim at being Scandinavian to the extreme, Greenland. I’m assuming Barnes cut the song according to some distant creative logic he applies to the country so often murdered by Mercator, and not actually in Greenland, which might result in muted whale mating songs bleeding into the left channel of the recording (fact check: Gronland is the Danish translation of Greenland, and is a territory of Denmark) (sidebar: I can see why Barnes digs Greenland. Look at its coat of arms, for the love of Prime Minister Hans Enoksen).

Hissing Fauna on the whole is a different Of Montreal record than the last two, his first and second best, chronologically. It’s better than the spotty Sunlandic Twins, and less instantly ingratiating (denser) than his best work, Satanic Panic in the Attic (I wrote more about these here). Lyrically, Fauna is easily his most challenging and personal album, and marks a clean break from his recent escapist fare. The lyrics alone to “Gronlandic Edit,” with their air of subtle, charming paranoia, remind me of a more blithe John Darnielle, even: “I am satisfied hiding in our friend’s apartment, only leaving once a day to buy some groceries.” But the bridge (or what I’ll call the bridge) gets at the real gist of the message, and seems to come from nowhere other than a place of extreme boredom: “I guess it would be nice to give my heart to a god, but which one, which one do I choose? Oh, the church is filled with losers, so psycho and confused.” Barnes is suffering through the type of metaphyiscal quandary that only he could: one that disallows involvement in any organized religious operation filled with those who are not sufficiently both fabulous and with it; stylistically and psychologically. Slim pickins, those.

But where to find anyone sympathetic to Barnes’ plight? Those who not only appreciate multilayered, synth-affiliated falsettos as evidence of the sublime, but walking basslines instead of Footprints and the knowledge that “physics makes us all its bitches”? Probably in the audience of his shows, I’m assuming, if the line “the party people dancing for the indie star, but he’s the worst faker by far, and it’s sad” means what I think it does. He’s certainly conflicted, but still manages to solve part of his problem by the end of the song. Turns out, he just needs someone to have his back. Especially in the city, where the bustle triggers panic. So, defnitely not Greenland.

Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? will see release via PolyVinyl on 1/23. Preorder.

AUSSI: The Jackin’ Pop poll is up over at Idolator. Should I be surprised by Gnarls Barkley topping the artist list? Because I am. Here’s my ballot.

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