Review: Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? (or) heimdalsgate like a promethean curse

Posted on 29 May 2007 | 5 Comments

Filed Under: Album Reviews, Electronic, New Wave, Pop, Post Rock

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For some reason I’ve never given the Athens, GA band Of Montreal much of a listen. I don’t really know why but I never did. But a month or two ago my wife Amy started going on and on about just how great the new Of Montreal album is. I was like “Yeah, whatever,” but she was persistent about it.

Fast forward to last week and she finally corners me and tells me I need to listen to the album and write about it and blah, blah, blah. So I listened to it. Wow.

The album was blessed with the ridiculously long and pretentious-sounding title Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? but is so freakin’ irresistible that it doesn’t matter. On it Of Montreal kicks out twelve songs of indie-disco post-punk-funk jams that blew me away but not before being lodged deep inside my cranium. I mean what band has song titles that include the words Kongsvinger, Heimdalsgate, and Gronlandic?

Rump-shakin’ beats knock around with hyperactive synthesizers and Kevin Barnes’ sometimes shrill falsetto to conjure a dark yet sugary sweet psychedelic haze that approximates throwing Abba, The Rapture, LCD Soundsystem, The Bee Gees, and The Shins into a blender and then injecting the mixture into your broken heart. Forget Prozac and all the other anti-depressant drugs and listen to Hissing Fauna instead and dance away your blues.

I’m not really sure what earlier Of Montreal albums sound like, but I’ll soon be looking back to find out. Hissing Fauna is such an incredible and invigorating album that I’ve probably played it a half-dozen times or more during what was a busy Holiday weekend. The album is out now on the fantastically awesome Polyvinyl Records.

MP3 | Of Montreal – Heimdalsgate Like A Promethean Curse Hissing Fauna…
MP3 | Of Montreal – Faberge Falls For Shuggie Hissing Fauna…

Comments

1 wife - 422 days ago I think I'm more of a "yada, yada, yada" rather than a "blah, blah, blah" but so be it. It's your blog.
=P
xoxo

2 dusted21 - 422 days ago I too have fallen victim to this magnificent record. I now find myself listening to it every day and liking it more and more. I was a casual fan of Of Montreal for a while before they did this. Now its gotten to be so hardcore i'm going to Chicago to see them at the pitchfork fest.

cheers!

3 Bill V - 421 days ago Love the latest CD, while I've liked the others I think this one is the best.

4 fairest - 420 days ago thanks, i dig this stuff but not as much as the stuff on "satanic panic in the attic" -- it would be interesting though to find them on this album for the first time. also, "everyday feels like sunday" from them is in a NASDAQ commercial. crazy.

speaking of coming to things late, thanks so much for that saint john song from the cold war kids. youre right with your genre being "indie soul" -- that is indie soul. cant stop listening to it.

5 Chryde - 409 days ago Ouch, here I am making promo... But we played in the street, totally drunk with Of Montreal.
C'est un Take Away Show !