Fall Music Preview 2008 : Rolling Stone

Of Montreal

Skeletal Lamping 10/21

On Of Montreal's last record, Hissing Fauna Are You The Destroyer?, frontman Kevin Barnes dug deep to explore his severe depression brought on by moving to Oslo, Norway, and starting a family. So it's a relief that on their ninth disc — which Barnes recorded in his attic studio in his hometown of Athens, Georgia — Barnes largely talks about sex on 15 tracks that are built on dozens of song fragments stuck together. Highlights include the triumphant horn rave-up "An Eluardian Instance," the noise-guitar explorations on "Nonpareil of Favor" and "St. Exquisite's Confessions," a silky-smooth jam which may be one of the group's funkiest yet, with Barnes crooning hilarious lines like "I'm so sick of sucking the dick of this cruel, cruel city." "I always joke how each album is a parallel to a Prince record," Barnes says. "This one is my Sign 'o' the Times, Lovesexy and The Black Album all together."