Of Montreal: Skeletal Lamping

As the title suggests, Of Montreal's latest finds

Kevin Barnes shining a light on the skeletons in his closet, and as expected,

they come out to dance all over Skeletal Lamping. There's the inner queer,

the outward straight, the hopeless romantic, and the backward bondage freak,

along with Barnes' heretofore closeted white rapper, as well as alter ego

Georgie Fruit, a fortysomething transsexual black soul singer. Much will be

made of this album's overt sexuality (filled with lines like, "Lover-face, I

want to make you ejaculate until it's no longer fun"), but the subject matter

isn't surprising, especially after Mr. Fruit let the banana out of the basket

in Las Vegas last year. What's truly at stake here is identity. Last time,

Barnes documented his mental breakdown; in Lamping, he pours his mixed-up

marbles onto the table to take stock. Naturally, the music is tailor-made for

such insanity.

"Nonpareil Of Favor" opens the album with baroque

harpsichord while Barnes croons like a Marc Bolan prone to Queen-y histrionics.

A minute later, he and the band are aping OutKast's "Hey Ya!", then Sgt.

Pepper's,

then arena rock, and finally No Age, with a massive wall of guitar that crests

over a lazy groove. "Wicked Wisdom" comes next, wherein Barnes yelps like

Prince, transmutes into Georgie ("I'm just a black she-male / and I don't know

what you people are all about / chalky people"), and does Hot Chip almost

better than Hot Chip. Most songs start with a barrage of mini movements, find

aural stasis, then give in to stylistic onslaught. It's physically tiring at

times, but immaculately arranged. That's less true of Barnes' lyrics. While his

words are lysergically colorful and often poetic, any greater meaning is

dissolved in an acid bath of too much information. Lamping has its salient moments,

but after nine albums and having seen Barnes' private bits, it'd be nice to get

to know the guy a little better.