According to a post on his MySpace blog, Kevin Barnes has completed the latest Of Montreal album, to be titled Skeletal Lamping, and due in October. According to the post, he’s been “working on it for over a year” and it’s “mastered and ready to go.”
In what amounts to an extended disclaimer, Barnes claims he “wanted to make an album that was unpredictable and, at times, startling, yet always hummable and catchy.” Sounds like an Of Montreal album.
Read the whole thing after the jump…
Monday, June 09, 2008
skeletal lamping is done!!!
Category: Automotive
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 somethings 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.