Music Review: Of Montreal "Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?"

Of Montreal
Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?

Kevin Barnes is falling apart inside. It’s always a real shame when those who walk around with smiles pasted on their faces can’t keep their façade up any longer and their torment seeps through their teeth. On Hissing Fauna, though, Barnes grins even harder until he can’t take it anymore, leaving behind a broken identity for that of a crazed alien glam star.

All of the elements of past albums are apparent, including crazy drum machine beats, even more hyper synthesizers, and creepily harmonious oohs and ahhs under “Beatles on speed” vocals. The most glaring difference, though, is in Barnes’ lyrics. Now bluntly personal, his words describe his meltdown into loneliness, drugs (“Come on, Chemicals!”) and then into a total identity crisis in the album-splitting opus “The Past Is A Grotesque Animal.” There is no way to ignore this 12 minute track where Barnes’ rambles straight-from-the-journal free verse over repetitious to the point of obnoxious layered beats that disappointingly end in a static fizzle. Casual listeners will barely make it past the three minute mark before tuning out entirely.

The band emerges from its dark K hole with a brand new affinity for ridiculously awesome alien funk that totally makes up for the past 720 seconds. Songs like “Labrinthian Pomp” and “Faberge Falls For Shuggie,” clearly influenced by Prince, find Barnes with a newfound confidence toward the scene around him. Most notable are the instances where he turns a girl down for one with “SOUL POWAH” and later after seeing “the girl who left (him) bitter” he restrains himself from paying another to punch her in the face.

The best way I can sum up my reaction to the album would be to compare it to Michel Gondry’s The Science of Sleep. Just like Science, Hissing Fauna is an artsy-er, more experimental piece than it’s predecessor, with free flowing creativity that might overwhelm an audience not accustom to the quirks of its creator. To them I would recommend the artist’s earlier work (SUNLANDIC TWINS IS SUPER FUNTIME!) and if enjoyed, then to go right on ahead and disappear into the twisted world of these enigmatic minds.

-Published in the Rutgers Review 1/30/2007