Paralytic Stalks

4-12-2013

Of Montreal - lush disco indie weirdness, with strings and more. Mine is a minority opinion-- this release from the first half of 2012 (it's going on the KZSU A-File in conjunct in a more recently released set of Of Montreal rarities) was mostly ignored, and when not ignored, maligned.

I personally think it's among the best two or three releases Of Montreal has put out, every song has great hooks, all sorts of absurd textures everywhere. It couples Kevin Barnes's Beatlesesque songcraft with experimentation.

The release WAS full FCCs, but I've made a clean edit. So play this, not a copy from anywhere else.

1 (4:09) *** 10 seconds of near-silence to start... a whispered talking portion, then echoey, stompy, glammy, Princey. Staticky outro.
2 (3:37) ****** Plunky intro, raw absurd vocals against weird disco background, strange on-and-off musical snatches, chatter, etc. Great hook in chorus, great pulse-- one of the very best tracks of last year.
3 (4:34) * Lush, Very Princey vox.
4 (5:29) *** "There's blood in my hair" Disco nightmare, starts catch, falls into reverb vortex. At 3:40, the bottom falls out-- nothing but handclaps and nightmare running. At very end, barbershop-quartetesque harmony, segues into next track...
5 (2:36) ***** Lush sweet pipey ballad, absurd thesaurus abuse. Syrupy woodwinds wind about, it's really pretty and schlocky in a '60s mode. Noodle out.
6 (8:46) ** Disco/Prince intro, moves into harder-driving guitar-led portion, sweaty and spastic and psychey, then into strange fake-voiced a capella stomper, saxes driving towards a warpy petering out... 10 seconds of silence at end.
7 (7:36) ** Simple acoustic strummy hushed vocals to start. Then hang-banging disco, moves more into a music-hall, and back-and-forth further... "so much bitterness". Stops suddenly a third of the way in, becomes incredibly sparse ambient+harp deal for many minutes. And then a whole new ditty in the last minute, on piano.
8 (7:40) ** Theatrical, all atmosphere and talking, dissonant textures, ambient, spacey in a disco sort of way.
9 (13:15) ** La-la-la intro, into Princey ode, then into root-canal torment, pure noise, then more noise. Finally, a saccharine piano
ballad. Long.

-Hervey Okkles