 Of Montreal - The Sunlandic Twins (Polyvinyl)
 Of Montreal's hot streak continues with The Sunlandic Twins Kevin Barnes and company continue to move toward their increasingly polished, rhythmically bouyant and playful pop bliss. The play and sense of fun from early records is still very much present, while their song writing and continued to improve, having now developed into an utterly fascinating and rewarding style. The track that immediately stands out is "Wraith Pinned to the Mist and Other Games" which adds a ridiculously effective stereo panned ping-pong bassline to an already addictive, fantastic song. After digging through the complex details interweaved in every song, a few other songs quickly prove themselves as standouts. "The Party's Crashing Us" is probably my favorite. Not only are the hooks there, but bizarre lyrics (including "We make love like a pair of black wizards") too. "Forecast Fascist Future" starts like an ode to Bowie's bombastic combination of acoustic and electric guitar (think "Queen Bitch" from 'Hunky Dory'), and ends with a bubbling mantra of "May we never go go mental, may we always stay stay gentle."
As if the album's 13 fantastic tracks weren't good enough, they've also included a "bonus" EP of four extra songs. "Art Snob Solutions" opens the disc, calling artists to rise up and murder anyone who hasn't heard of Of Montreal, with clever references to film, art and literature. "Keep Sending Me Black Fireworks" hints at fellow Elephant 6-ers Apples in Stereo when Hilarie takes the vocal duties from Rob.
While Neutral Milk Hotel will never be unseated as the zenith of the E6 world, Of Montreal have steadily surpassed (not to mention outlasted) nearly everyone else. After this album, I'd say they've firmly secured 2nd place.
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dick baldwin at
12:53 PM June 13, 2005
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dick, you know you're wrong - it was the olivia tremor control at the top of the E6 pile. i know you misplaced your notes when you were typing the review, so i forgive you. kisses!
Posted by: cory rayborn at June 15, 2005 01:40 PM
Dick is right. It is NHM, then everybody else. All those other bands can go to hell, OTC included. I mean, like no one ever listened to the Beatles before, give me a fucking break.
Posted by: jim steed at June 15, 2005 07:34 PM
Here's a little more detail and explanation of my opinion:
I've just recently had a reinvested interest in OTC, and bought up the singles I hadn't gotten the first time around, and while I think they're definitely a great band, I think NMH are in a completely different league. "Oh, Comely" alone carries the emotional weight, musical sophistication and melodic ingeniousness to outdo anything OTC has done. Then, there are all the other great songs on top of that.
And, the last couple albums have shown Of Montreal reaching this weirdly accelerated quality, which has completely changed my opinion of them. The appeal of OTC (for me) is that they wrote some really catchy stuff, but interspersed it with nice atmospherics and detailed sonic tapestries. Of Montreal, on the other hand, write much catchier songs, and also write complicated musical relationships into the songs themselves, including stereo effects, switching musical ideas with no warning (and with a natural ease), as well as weird looping and sonic experimentation. These are all things that OTC does as well, but Of Montreal's execution works much better for me.
They seem to be overlooked a bit for a few reasons. First, E6 is generally viewed to be long gone, and people just don't seem to care to invest their time and attention to a band who's STILL going. Second, they're on Polyvinyl. Which, is probably not the most well regarded label in some circles. Thirdly, their direction has taken them outside of the standard E6 territory. They aren't so blatantly copping The Beatles or The Beach Boys. There are elements of 80's synth bands, 70's bravado and brash attitudes and 60's / 70's psychedelia.
I stick to my opinion that Of Montreal are absolutely amazing. I've listened to this album more than any other this year.
Posted by: Dick Baldwin at June 16, 2005 09:55 AM
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