Of Montreal hits the double digits with their 10th studio album — False Priest — a mixture of more indie pop, funk, and R&B beats and less of the electronic and acoustic elements that emerged in Satanic Panic in the Attic and Cherry Peel, and it suits them well.
As always, the sanguine falsetto tweeting of Kevin Barnes that we love so much prevails — in a good way — in False Priest as well.
This album, like many of their previous ones, is a bundle of playful and paradoxical lyrics that have us turning our heads after the first run through, with the response wavering between that fine line of “Huh?” and “I gotcha” that so often occurs with Of Montreal.
In the opener “I Feel Ya Strutter” we get the immediately recognizable fruity flavor characteristic of Of Montreal’s poppy tunes. Its sunny beat and not-so-ingenious lyrics make it easily accessible.
While their sweet and twinkling tone permeates the first couple tracks, things begin to get a little weird by the seventh song, “Like a Tourist.”
Barnes’ twisted psychology comes out in the words, as he begins accusing “you” of “fetishizing the archetype” of female erection — but don’t worry folks, Barnes is there to offer us with some shrill but effective treatments, like “dragon rape” and “unicorns eating baby meat.” We don’t quite gotcha.
The lyrics of “Famine Affair,” however, seem to clear up the confusion, with Barnes almost coming to terms with his love addiction: “She said, ‘You’re not boring/I’m just bored with you.’”
It seems a certain degree of innocence has been lost since Sunlandic Twins (2004). The lyrics from opener “Requiem for O. M. M. 2” come to mind: “When I met you I was just a kid/Hadn’t built up my defenses.”
The depressing drag and self-pitying lines of the next song on the album, “Casualty of You,” is a real downer.
Unlike the change of pace that “Oslo in the Summertime” injects into Sunlandic Twins, “Casualty of You” is more like the old man in the corner of the bar than the dark and mysterious stranger.
Surprisingly, it’s the tracks with the strongest R&B influences, like “Godly Intersex,” “Girl Named Hello,” and “Around the Way” that make the album work.
Guest appearances by Solange, in “Sex Karma,” and Janelle Monae, in “Enemy Gene” and “Our Riotous Defects,” are right on, throwing in a smoothing R&B accent into the mix.
While False Priest is a little dark and twisty, it’s still worth a listen.
