Of Montreal – Hissing Fauna Are You The Destroyer? | owl and bear

Of Montreal – Hissing Fauna Are You The Destroyer?

This entry was posted by jon on Wednesday, February 7th, 2007 at 1:04 am.

2007, Polyvinyl

Of Montreal have made a progression from the ’60s psychedelia of early Elephant 6 releases into a ’70s art/glam rock mode a la early Roxy music.

As inherently terrifying as this may sound to some readers, this is actually a good thing: Of Montreal have used this transition to make an album that exceeds all expectation.

Not enough people listen to early Roxy Music, and Of Montreal is set to reinvigorate what has been lost for over 30 years. Instead of putting out a fey echo of things past (you hear me, Interpol?), Of Montreal have released a vital album, a living work that honors- but does not feed on the corpse of- the past.

There’s a healthy pinch of 80’s new wave thrown in for flavor, but again, Of Montreal simply use this to fashion a vibrant sound, not to make “that 80’s sound” their modus operandi (like too many bands to name). This is an album of giddy euphoria, the cheeriest break-up album ever, and damn excellent.

A+

jon says:

February 12, 2007 at 1:24 pm

Consider this a postscript to the review. I feel now that pigeon-holing the album’s music as Roxy music style art rock was right nad wrong. Of Montreal have made an excellent album that stands on its own, and comparisons, while relevant, may cheapen this. There are a lot of similarities between the sound of this album and early Roxy Music, but there are also echoes of prime Bowie, and even (shudder) the BeeGees. Roxy Music were really too British to be funky, and when things did take a funky turn, it was more amusing than thrilling. Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer is unrepentantly funky, which is also amusing, considering that Kevin Barnes is a white boy from Georgia who is not above wearing eyeliner. Still, it makes you want to shake your ass from beginning to end. One other thing, there are programmed drums all over this album, which some purists would claim excludes this from being a rock album, to which I reply,”Get over it.” Given the explosion in technology over the past few years, I commend anyone who is attempting to expand rock’s framework with new sounds. That said, if Brian Wilson had possessed a laptop before he melted his brain with psychedelics, I believe that he would have used it like any other instrument in his best work. Time machine inventors, get on it.