If you are one of those people who yearns for days of yonder, specifically the Marmite decade of the 1980s, Of Montreal‘s latest effort (their 14th, believe it or not) should be firmly on your radar. Former GIITTV Track Of The Day ‘It’s Different For Girls‘ is a pertinent indicator of such, its poppy electro groove sharing a kinship with the likes of Visage and the virgin end of the aforementioned decade in general. Not that you could ever expect an album by the resilient Georgians to pick a theme and stick to it, of course, and any fears of this ilk are rapidly dispelled with the arrival of ‘Gratuitous Abysses‘, a gnarly glam platform stomper that sounds bizarrely like David Bowie fronting The Hives with Lennon and McCartney on backing vocals. Similarly, at the mid-point, we have ‘A Sport And A Pastime‘, beginning as though it is going to be a 10-minute homage to Kraftwerk, but instead becoming a stripped down celebration of synthesized sounds and voices that is probably closer to how the Pet Shop Boys might sound if the Art Of Noise produced them.
This is the great thing about Of Montreal. You never know which version of the band is going to turn up to the bash, and even when they do show, you’re not sure if they’re going to be delivering party cheesecake, scowling at the freshers in the kitchen or merely crying on the toilet. ‘Ambassador Bridge‘ is a perfect example – here we have funky little Nile Rodgers-like opening refrain that dupes you into believing we’re all going to be having a ‘Get Lucky‘ style boogie-down, but then it all breaks down into a rather bleak, intense sounding lament, before urging you back to the dancefloor, gently reassuring you that everything is going to be ok; “Till the day she’s here/I’ll stay underground,” asserts the band’s colourful frontman Kevin Barnes, explaining that “I don’t have to feel evil any more and I’m happier when she’s around.”
Then you have the theatrical ‘Chaos Arpeggiating‘, once again showcasing Barnes’ remarkable talent for fascinating song monikers, and once again conjuring unusual juxtapositions as reference points. Rufus Wainwright singing for an early incarnation of Pink Floyd perhaps? Maybe, or maybe not, it doesn’t matter; the point I am trying to make is that Of Montreal have carved a two-decade career out of making sure they can never be properly pigeonholed. If that doesn’t already command the greatest respect, the fact that they have made one of the finest records of their career with Innocence Reaches indicates that they did bring the cheesecake after all, and what’s more, it has a cherry on top.
Innocence Reaches is released on 12th August 2016 through Polyvinyl Records.
