Kevin Barnes bares his emotions like never before on Of Montreal's latest, Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? Written during a year in which Barnes separated from and then reconciled with his wife, Hissing Fauna reveals Barnes without his signature fanciful characters and his ""variety of whimsical verse,"" as one of the band's earlier albums was subtitled.
This one rushes out of the gate with the desperate plea of ""Suffer for Fashion"": ""If we've got to burn out, let's do it together."" Later, in ""Heimdalsgate like a Promethean Curse,"" Barnes cries, ""I'm in a crisis/come on mood shift/shift back to good again."" As is typical of the band, songs morph in tempo from fast to slow and back again, restless to reach the next sugary hook. But now the insecure, emotional narrator who always seems to lurk behind Of Montreal's cheery faA§ade makes his first public appearance.
Nowhere is this clearer than on the album's centerpiece, the 12-minute dirge, ""The Past is a Grotesque Animal,"" a raw-nerve account of desperation and self-loathing with pulsating, steady musical accompaniment. Barnes throws down the gauntlet here, and most likely one's opinion of the album will hinge on this song. ""I need you here, and not here too,"" Barnes sings.
He describes a heart-wrenching domestic fight, with objects thrown his way and both partners screaming in each other's faces. After the despair and the bitterness comes a plea for reconciliation. Then, a touching statement, as the tension of the song builds to almost unbearable levels: ""No matter where we are/we're always touching by underground wires."" Here, in the throes of pulsating bass and acidic lyrics, is a relationship gone through hell and back again.
The album is not without its lighter moments. ""Bunny Ain't No Kind of Rider"" finds Barnes shrugging off potential lovers, claiming he needs ""a lover with soul power."" On the saucy, funky ""Labyrinthian Pomp,"" he asks the rhetorical question: ""How you wanna hate a thing when you are so inferior?"" Musically, the album melds the robotic synthesizers and bass-lines of The Sunlandic Twins with the restless verve found in much of the band's oeuvre.
The increased introspection of Barnes' lyrics brings into sharp relief the intriguing dynamic of the band's music. Just as they incorporate influences from the sugary psychedelic pop of the Beatles to the robotic funk of Prince, Of Montreal embody a complete spectrum of emotions, from ecstatic glee to overwhelming despair. Hissing Fauna shows the band's strengths, managing to be relentlessly catchy and powerfully affecting at the same time. This is a break-up album for every mood.
