Of Montreal: Aureate Gloom ALBUM REVIEW

Of Montreal are, in my opinion, the most aggressively weird band we have in pop music these days. Leader Kevin Barnes started the band off in the early nineties with the intent of sounding as much like the Beatles as possible, but managed to achieve so much more than that with tracks like "Tim, I Wish You Were A Girl". Then he wanted to move the group in a more electronic direction, and we got albums like, Satanic Panic In The Attic. But something happened in 2007, Kevin Barnes released what is considered by a lot of people to be Of Montreal's best, post-nineties release, Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer which saw Barnes embracing glam rock and disco in a big way. Thus, Of Montreal sort of became the white version of prince, circa Around The World. 

Personally, I think Hissing Fauna is a good album, and while I think an album like False Priest is just a bit too overbearing with it's instrumentation and vocal oddities, I found myself actually enjoying Paralytic Stalks quite a bit. However, it was 2013's Lousy With Sylvianbriar that really got me excited. Here, we got to see Kevin Barnes scale back his gaudiness and instead just write some solid rock and pop songs with some really wonderful, snide lyrics.

Enter 2015 and the latest LP from the mad hatter himself, called Aureate Gloom. This album essentially picks up where Lousy left off, presenting another set of rock and pop songs, but maybe with a bit more psychedelic and touches of, you guessed it, disco. Though the disco elements here are very tame (at least relatively), so you won't be rolling your eyes at Barnes' propensity for extravagance.

I actually think I like this album a little more than Lousy, and I think that has a lot to do with the overall poppier feel this album has. The first track here has one of the catchiest choruses I've heard in an Of Montreal since Paralytic Stalks or Hissing Fauna and the overall feel of the album is just as intimate and raw as Lousy was, but with a slightly more 'gloomy' atmosphere.

It's hard to pick apart an Of Montreal album without going into every single moment of every single track, because the glory is in the details. However, I can say with absolute certainty, Aureate Gloom is worth picking apart and discovering for yourself. Keep in mind, this is still a modern Of Montreal album, and comes readily equipped with some of the most ostentatious track titles and lyrics you're liable to here this year; but hey, I like that stuff.

8.3/10