of Montreal: Skeletal Lamping: 2xLP Green/Black Mix Vinyl

Skeletal Lamping may be bizarre, complicated, and dense, but it's also extremely catchy and packed with slinky grooves that demand a physical response. Instantly ingratiating hooks abound as Kevin Barnes' compositions constantly mutate and shape-shift in ways that defy conventional pop song structure and album sequencing. Nevertheless, the record has its own internal logic, and its many tangents and detours feel entirely intuitive and organic in context. The movements mimic the shapeless, mystifying mingling of thoughts and emotions in the human mind, so even the most deliberately jarring transitions evoke a sudden shift in attention that is recognizable and commonplace, but rarely emulated in mainstream music.

Though of Montreal have never been strangers to expressing sexuality in their music, Skeletal Lamping finds Barnes fully immersed in the topic. Throughout the record, sexuality is presented as a broad continuum encompassing a wide range of experiences, anxieties, emotions and orientations. Barnes openly explores sex and gender roles without insecurity. They attempt to bring all of their fantasies, and terrors, to the surface, so as to better understand the machinery behind them. In Skeletal Lamping, Barnes argues that identity is fluid, malleable, and limited only by one's imagination.