Kevin Barnes has been making music as Of Montreal since 1998. Coming out of Georgia’s Elephant 6 collective, he began as a twee folk pop/rock band. But quickly Of Montreal became Barnes’ Funhouse where he could lean into any direction the Muse would take him. From the distinct album art(done by brother David) to the eccentric album/song titles and frenetic genre bending Barnes was a constant studio tinkerer, playing everything on the albums and fashioning himself as an indie rock Prince.
A vast discography shows Kevin Barnes as an artist constantly reinventing himself and his art. Albums like Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?, Skeletal Lamping, Paralytic Stalks, and Lousy With Sylvianbriar show an artist with big ideas and a personality for each of those ideas. Whether you love the work or don’t, you can’t deny the man’s drive and artistic ambition.
On Of Montreal’s 19th studio album, Lady On The Cusp, it seems Kevin Barnes is back to doing what he does best. An album of varied 80s dance pop, weirdo psychedelia, and Prince-adjacent studio wizardry. After a few album misses, Kevin Barnes sounds inspired once again.
If you’ve been following the Of Montreal journey, Lady On The Cusp is closest sonically to the 2000s run of albums Satanic Panic In The Attic, The Sunlandic Twins, and Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?. A run of albums that saw Barnes truly find his sound, which was 70s disco, 80s electro pop, and a kind of technicolor psychedelia layered over everything. “Music Hurts The Head” touches on everything from Tom Tom Club to Tears For Fears. Of course the song sounds like three or four songs playing at once, but Kevin Barnes is a ringmaster of chaos. “Rude Girl On Rotation” is a great folk-y song, reminiscent of the Cherry Peel days.
Elsewhere “Yung Hearts Bleed Free” goes all Around The World In A Day with some seriously funky pop, while “I Can Read Smoke” is Of Montreal going full lounge music. “Poetry Surf” is classic oddball Kevin Barnes, and album closer “Genius Of The Wind” ends sounding like Oingo Boingo going thru a medley of unreleased songs, too weird for human consumption.
If you can rely on anything in this world, you can rely of Of Montreal to keep releasing interesting outsider art. Lady On The Cusp is just that.
Complex Distractions 
Dang, Son! That’s a lot of new music lately! Nice.
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For sure. Last week alone there were probably close to 20 new releases. Not all my thing, but a lot of new stuff out and coming soon.
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