Album Review: The Sunlandic Twins by Of Montreal

Kevin Barnes' seventh Of Montreal album continues in his traditional vein of toying and teasing our memories of '60s pop, fed through whichever other fad or fashion most appeals to him at the time. In this instance, it's "21st century ADD electro-cinematic avant disco," which is a deliciously protracted way of saying quirky rhythms, lush harmonics, and a warm spot on the same side of the bed that the Polyphonic Spree occasionally share. The most deceptive angle to the album probably has to do with the titles -- it's unlikely whether the most obtuse mind could ever imagine tapping its toes to something called "Wraith Pinned to the Mist (And Other Games)," while "Forecast Fascist Future" simply shouldn't sound like a British Beach Boys, pebble-dashed with Ray Davies' finest harmonic daydreams, and then piped into a nursery where the infant Frank Zappa lays sleeping.

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Like many of their Elephant Six forebears, Athens second-wavers Of Montreal are prolific, unfortunately named, and frequently dismissed as a saccharine pop novelty. But despite a few missteps, Of Montreal counter the criticism with the occasionally masterful, frequently evocative, and consistently lovely Sunlandic Twins. Opener “Requiem for O.M.M.2” introduces two of Of Montreal’s tendencies throughout Sunlandic Twins: Barnes’ erudite, referential lyrics, which tend toward the literary and quasi-mythological (a la Tyrannosaurus Rex) rather than Decemberists-style historiography; and their occasional use of a riff/chord progression lifted – in homage? – from an artist Of Montreal obviously reveres.

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