Of Montreal
Coquelicot Asleep in the Poppies: A Variety of Whimsical Verse
[Kindercore]
Rating: 8.0
Will you hold me? I'm scared. It's not that I'm easily frightened. I can sit
through the most gruesome horror movie, happily munching away on imitation
butter-flavored popcorn while small intestines are strewn about the screen.
I can watch news stories about mad cow disease while devouring sheep's brain
soufflé. But listening to the latest Of Montreal record, all I can do is
curl up in a ball, smile the sick, twisted smile of the damned, and nod my
head up and down in a rhythmic fashion.
If you're familiar with the work of Athens popsters Of Montreal, the
disconcerting mix of a feeling of imminent implosion and a nagging urge to
draw pictures of smiling bunny rabbits I'm experiencing at the moment probably
doesn't surprise you. Of Montreal's music, and the bizarre artwork that
accompanies it, plays like a surreal carnival-- it can be beautiful, it can
be fun, and it can also be weird and creepy.
Coquelicot, like most Of Montreal albums, is at times sublime and
lovely, at times infuriatingly catchy, at times simply infuriating, at times
overly twee, and at times seriously fucking scary. What sets this record
apart from its predecessors, though, is a level of intricacy and detail that
Of Montreal have never previously attained as a band. The songs on
Coquelicot, though crammed full of saccharine pop hooks, display a
level of complex structuring and arrangement that could put most pop records
to shame.
Of Montreal's trademark hyperactivity, and melodic yet off-kilter sensibility
is possibly at its peak on Coquelicot. Seemingly drawing as much from
the English music hall tradition as from American pop acts like the Beach
Boys, there's nothing else out there quite like the frenetic, utterly
wacked-out pop these guys come up with.
When the record's at its best, the group incorporates more diverse elements
into their music than ever before. "Good Morning Mr. Edminton," Coquelicot's
opener, is a typical Of Montreal song in prime form. Fuzzed-out guitar, bouncy
piano, and multitracked harmonies by frontman Kevin Barnes set the stage for a
demented tale of kidnapping and working class struggle as told, of course,
from the kidnapper's point of view. "The Peacock Parasols," which features a
truly unforgettable, cryptic, and quite possibly misspelled lyric referring to
"P.P. icycles," goes from a pop song in warp drive to a dense, orchestral
middle, and back.
Though fast-paced pop is clearly the bread and butter of Coquelicot,
it's far from the only style to be found on this record. They're not playing
around about the "variety of whimsical verse" thing. And sadly, this means
the inclusion of the intolerable skit "The Events Leading Up to the Collapse
of Detective Dulllight," in which Kevin Barnes seeks to shatter your
preconceived notions of reality by introducing a character whose name contains
three consecutive "l's." After a series of good songs, nothing's quite as
frustrating as hitting a 2½ comedy routine in which some guy named Slocks
writes a poem called "The Cause of Gauze." And then reads it aloud.
Besides annoying passages like these, the album's most challenging element is
its length. At a solid 70 minutes, it's almost impossible to endure an entire
sitting. Had the filler been cut, this would easily be their best album yet,
but repeated exposure to this stuff for that length of time can't be good for
anybody. Of course, I don't have to worry, because I'm a five-footed,
owl-headed elf named Figgienewton! Uh-oh...
-Matt LeMay