Of Montreal mastermind Kevin Barnes has revealed the band's forthcoming album, titled Skeletal Lamping, will be released through Polyvinyl on October 7.
The follow-up to last year's breakthrough album, the whimsical Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?, Skeletal Lamping is the band's ninth LP in 11 years.
On the Of Montreal MySpace blog, Barnes dished the details on the album:
I've finished the new album. I've been working on it for over a year. it's mastered and ready to go.
it won't come out till October though. I am very happy with it. I worry that some people are going to misunderstand it. there's nothing I can do about that though now, it is done. Anyways, I didn't create it to give people something to like. I created it because i was compelled to.
it is possible to view this album as one long composition, with lots of different movements, or just as a collection of pop songs. i wanted to make an album that was unpredictable and, at times, startling, yet always hummable and catchy. Some of the transitions are intentionally awkward. I did this to keep the listener off guard and to dismantle people's perception of how an album is supposed to be constructed. I am so bored with art that makes sense and "works." I wanted to do something that didn't "work." Very few things pique our interest while they are working as we expect them to. Things are far more interesting when they are not working. Shocking people though, just for the sake of it, is so mundane. Nothing on Skeletal Lamping was intended to shock. I just feel that, in most contemporary songs, you can basically finish the artist's sentences, musically and lyrically. I wanted to make an album where that was not possible. i wanted to make a record that could truly surprise a listener. to create something that was, in turns, enraging, joyous, discomforting, playful, lovely, unpleasant, freaky, mesmeric... something that came close to capturing the labyrinthine complexity of this human consciousness.
I spend most of my time in a state of mild confusion and pensiveness. I imagine most people do too. This record is my attempt to bring all of my puzzling, contradicting, disturbing, humorous... fantasies, ruminations and observations to the surface so that i can better dissect and understand their reason for being in my head. Hence the title, Skeletal Lamping. Lamping is the name of a rather dreadful hunting technique where hunters go into the forest at night, flood an area in light, then shoot or capture the animals as they panic and run from their hiding places.
this album is my attempt at doing this to my proverbial skeletons. I haven't yet decided if I should shoot or just capture them though.
Of Montreal will embark on a North American tour following the album's release in October, which includes two Canadian dates: Toronto's Queen Elizabeth Theatre on October 28, and Montreal's Metropolis on October 29. Just in time for Halloween.
Babies love Of Montreal
The follow-up to last year's breakthrough album, the whimsical Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?, Skeletal Lamping is the band's ninth LP in 11 years.
On the Of Montreal MySpace blog, Barnes dished the details on the album:
I've finished the new album. I've been working on it for over a year. it's mastered and ready to go.
it won't come out till October though. I am very happy with it. I worry that some people are going to misunderstand it. there's nothing I can do about that though now, it is done. Anyways, I didn't create it to give people something to like. I created it because i was compelled to.
it is possible to view this album as one long composition, with lots of different movements, or just as a collection of pop songs. i wanted to make an album that was unpredictable and, at times, startling, yet always hummable and catchy. Some of the transitions are intentionally awkward. I did this to keep the listener off guard and to dismantle people's perception of how an album is supposed to be constructed. I am so bored with art that makes sense and "works." I wanted to do something that didn't "work." Very few things pique our interest while they are working as we expect them to. Things are far more interesting when they are not working. Shocking people though, just for the sake of it, is so mundane. Nothing on Skeletal Lamping was intended to shock. I just feel that, in most contemporary songs, you can basically finish the artist's sentences, musically and lyrically. I wanted to make an album where that was not possible. i wanted to make a record that could truly surprise a listener. to create something that was, in turns, enraging, joyous, discomforting, playful, lovely, unpleasant, freaky, mesmeric... something that came close to capturing the labyrinthine complexity of this human consciousness.
I spend most of my time in a state of mild confusion and pensiveness. I imagine most people do too. This record is my attempt to bring all of my puzzling, contradicting, disturbing, humorous... fantasies, ruminations and observations to the surface so that i can better dissect and understand their reason for being in my head. Hence the title, Skeletal Lamping. Lamping is the name of a rather dreadful hunting technique where hunters go into the forest at night, flood an area in light, then shoot or capture the animals as they panic and run from their hiding places.
this album is my attempt at doing this to my proverbial skeletons. I haven't yet decided if I should shoot or just capture them though.
Of Montreal will embark on a North American tour following the album's release in October, which includes two Canadian dates: Toronto's Queen Elizabeth Theatre on October 28, and Montreal's Metropolis on October 29. Just in time for Halloween.
Babies love Of Montreal
