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The Collective:
Blog Archive
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2008
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October
(15)
- Wilco the Song
- Coates and Kool G
- If Hollywood directors made John MCain's ads
- Of Montreal - Skeletal Lamping
- Colin Powell Endorsement
- Dreaming of You
- The Debate
- Foot Slightly In Mouth
- Nerd Alert Follow-Up
- Ralph Stanley Endorses Obama
- Critical Consensus
- This time I think it's real
- Take On Me: The Literal Version
- Andrew Bird - "Oh No"
- Fauxlksy
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October
(15)
5 comments:
Haven't gotten it yet. Somewhat perturbed by the mixed reviews but I'll weigh in when I get it.
It's terrible. Totally derivative of Led Zeppelin. I don't understand the critics' fascination with--
Wait, what's that? We're talking about Of Montreal, not the White Stripes?
Permission to strike my comment from the record...
Having now listened to this a bunch of times I'm prepared to comment. I think the negative reviews have a point, to an extent. It's very disjointed and almost silly how it jumps from unrelated motif to unrelated motif within the same "song." It's at its strongest when it actually sticks to the same idea for more than two minutes. And though I was at first tempted to call it somewhat Smile-esque, that's not really true, because with Smile, Brian was coming up with these little modular pieces that could be slotted in and out of each other, so that the chorus to one song becomes the haunting minor-key tack piano coda to another and so forth. Here, they leave each theme never to revisit it. On the other hand, there's something kind of awesome about an album full of isolated ideas. You don't need to repeat the idea for it to be a "chorus." If it's catchy enough on its own, then it works. So the album feels like the last three albums stuck in a blender, but that means that each time I've listened to it, I've heard new bits and pieces that I'd missed the first time around. The fact is, of Montreal is now A Band That I Like (like Wilco or Radiohead, to name two off the top of my head) where pretty much no matter what they do, I'll at least find it compelling and worth listening to. So I can't be totally objective. It's not as strong as Hissing Fauna, but I'm definitely really enjoying it.
This review is seriously over-written (not unlike the album itself) but probably comes the closest to capturing how I feel about it:
http://www.cokemachineglow.com/record_review/4001/ofmontreal-skeletalamping-2008
Tex, what say you?
Here's what I think:
I've only enjoyed listening to it when I've been under the influence. Every other time it gives me a headache.
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