Whiskey Pie Presents The Best of Whiskey Pie 2008 (A Whiskey Pie Production)

I started Whiskey Pie along with CJ at the beginning of 2008. Though he dropped out of the site for various reasons, I think I speak for both of us when I say that my only goal was to try to stick with something for once, to update it fairly consistently, and not to give up. I don't want to get too self-congratulatory, but throughout 2008 I was able to post at least a couple times a week on top of the other writing I was doing; not only that, I'm genuinely proud of some of the writing I did this year.

Anyway, I'm going to take this chance to look back on Whiskey Pie in 2008 and link some of the posts I was particularly proud of. Also, I'm going to Cleveland for New Year's and will take the rest of the week off, so new Whiskey Pie posts will start on this upcoming Monday (coincidentally, I'm starting a second job that day, too).

Look-A-Likes: When Whiskey Pie began, I was still getting back into the swing of coming up with something to write every week, but this feature was an idea I had had for some time. It might even have dated back to when I was still in college and writing for the paper. Anyway, I think my look-a-likes are pretty on the mark.

Super Mario Galaxy: I don't do a lot of videogame stuff on this site, mainly because I don't play enough games to feel truly confident in my critical faculties for the artform. But I feel like everything I wanted to say about this game I managed to squeeze in without doing the boring consumer report style review.

Bukowski On Film: Barfly Vs. Factotum: I'm a huge fan of Charles Bukowski, so it was interesting to finally see the movies he wrote/are based on him. I thought this came off pretty well.

A Guide To World of Warcraft Classes: I really enjoyed writing this article because I was heavily into WoW at the time. Now it just seems like a bad attempt at a Something Awful post. Still, I think the pictures are kind of funny and I don't do as much overt attempts at humor on Whiskey Pie anymore.

Video: Tom Waits- God's Away On Business: OK, I just wanted to get people to go watch this video because I think it's badass.

New Pornographers- Challengers: As I say in the review itself, I find it hard to write negative reviews but I think I did a decent job with this one.

Album of the Week: Spoon- Girls Can Tell: I try not to get too digressive or background informationy with my reviews and I think I achieved a good balance here while still digging into the album itself.

Why I Quit World of Warcraft: Maybe I should've let this article stew for a week or so while I made a few more edit passes at it. As it stands, I managed to get down everything I wanted to say as coherently as possible.

Primer: Beck Part 8- Guero: When I begin writing any of my Primer entries on bands, this is the kind of 'review' I strive for. Something that places the work in the context of the band or artist's discography but doesn't devolve into a constant series of "this isn't as good as" or "this is better than" statements with hardly a mention of the album itself.

Shadow of the Colossus: If I could write something like this everyday, I would be pretty damn happy with myself. I so clearly remember editing this post and thinking it was one of the best critiques/re-evaluations of something I had ever written. I'm still really proud of it, too.

The Jesus and Mary Chain- Psychocandy: Sometimes in writing a review, I'm working through my feelings about the album as much as I am trying to write a competent critique of it. I go into it without a clear positive or negative slant in mind but in the process of writing and thinking, I end up with something like this.

The Sincerest Form of Flattery: This is one of those critical think pieces I do from time to time. I know a lot of people don't bother with these since they are like reading someone thinking out loud, but I find them a healthy by-product of the critic's diet. Or maybe that should be 'the critic's masturbation.'

Halloween: Film Round-Up 1: In case you couldn't tell, I love Halloween and had a blast doing all the Halloween-y content throughout October. This was the first batch of mini-film reviews I did, and it was probably the best. Starting this series caused me to begin watching way more movies than I had been, thereby reigniting my love for film in general.

Primer: Phish Part 6/Album of the Week- Billy Breathes: While I was writing the Primer entries on Phish, I was making a conscious effort to balance the music critic part of me and the mindless fan part of me. This was probably the point where the two were most equal.

Album of the Week: Elliott Smith- Either/Or: It was only after I finished writing this review and began editing that I realized I hadn't said very much about the music or the songs. Yet as someone who commented on this review said, I still managed to capture the feel of the thing. This is the same as the Shadow of the Colossus post, because I wish that every time I sat down to write something like this came out.

Half-Life: Again, even though I don't write a lot about videogames, I think I did a great job of talking about this game on its 10 year anniversary without devolving into "the graphics were good, the sound was OK, the controls are too loose, etc."

David Lynch's Inland Empire: Every single time I had seen Inland Empire before writing this I ended up drunk by the end of it. So it was enlightening to watch it during a drying out period and to know that it still doesn't make a lot of sense if you're stone cold sober. Still, I enjoyed writing this review and I think it helped me collect my feelings about it and Lynch's work in general.

Stephen Malkmus- Stephen Malkmus: I try to avoid concept reviews because they tow a fine line between smarmy/pretentious and fun/intelligent. Hopefully you think, as I do, that I ended up with the latter.

That ended up being a lot more posts than I thought. Well, Happy New Year everybody. Here's hoping I have as many highlights when 2009 draws to a close...

The Best Albums of 2008 Part 2

8) Stephen Malkmus- Real Emotional Trash
Call me a super fan. Say that I have a man-crush on Stephen Malkmus. Whatever. Much as I love Pavement and wish Malkmus would get the boys back together, I'm not a fool. Those days are gone and Malkmus is wisely following his own muse from album to album. Real Emotional Trash takes Malkmus's flirtations with guitar heroics and the jam scene to its inevitable conclusion, adding ex-Sleater-Kinney drummer Janet Weiss to level out the bottom end. The result is less Phish or the extended moments of Led Zepplin than it is the Malkmus-ian aesthetic we've come to love but with even more emphasis on guitar-led improvisation than Pig Lib. The lengthy title track was one of this year's best joyrides.

7) Bon Iver- For Emma, Forever Ago
I think I said it best in my review: "It's always easy for me to forget albums like this when I'm discussing my 'best of the year' lists with the other music nerds and obsessives. These kinds of records, well, they don't change the world, create new genres, or instantly make scenes and sound-alikes sprout up in their wake. No, For Emma, Forever Ago is a familiar but fantastic pleasure, like spending a day off with a pot of tea, a new novel, and a rainstorm. The environment is well known but the novel is not. So it is with this album. It's one of the 2008's best (though technically it was self-released in 2007, so...) and a low key, strongly human piece of loss, pain, and recovery."

6) Portishead- Third
While I mostly fixated on the "comeback of the year!!" aspect of this release, one thing that's been sticking in the back of my mind has finally come out. Third reminded me of why I love electronic music. If accused of favoring rock above all other forms of music, I would concede the point. But albums like Third drop into my lap like a needy cat and whaddya know, I love electronic music, too. Using the tried and true "drum/synth loops with a vocalist" style as set in stone during the trip hop era, Third takes everything in a darker, more overtly synthetic direction while still remaining true to the band's feel and way with a song. Darker, more dissonant...it's like the soundtrack to Children of Men.

5) Wolf Parade- At Mount Zoomer
I wrote a really clumsy, music critic navel gazing kind of review for this album, but I think my point still stands: this album is every bit as good as their debut if you give it enough time. At Mount Zoomer seemed to be a pretty divisive release and while I fully understand why, I still think it's great if taken on its own terms. It doesn't have any songs as immediately stunning and memorable as 'I'll Believe In Anything', but it's got more variety and takes more chances. That counts for something in my book.

4) Sun Kil Moon- April
Had I ever listened to a Red House Painters or Sun Kil Moon (or even a Mark Kozelek solo release) album before April, I'm not sure I would have thought this album was so good. Maybe it was his worst release?? Well, having now gone back and picked up a good deal of Kozelek's work under those various monikers, I can safely say that April is still one of my favorites of the year. There's just something about his voice, his way with words, and the Neil Young-esque combination of skeletal acoustic ballads and extended guitar rockers that I can't get enough of. That the album is so long and I don't get bored halfway through speaks to its quality.

3) TV On The Radio- Dear Science
If Return To Cookie Mountain was the breakout release that Desperate Youth, Bloodthirsty Babes should have been, then Dear Science firmly entrenches TV On The Radio in the upper echelons of the indie rock world. The album is poppier, more polished, and more accessible than previous releases yet none of these are knocks against it. If anything, TV On The Radio have improved their way with vocals and their trademark hard-to-describe production, mixing hip hop, electronic, experimental, jazz, and indie rock textures, melodies, and rhythms into a magnificent soup. There's something quintessentially American about the band, at least the "classless, colorless" America that I hold as an ideal; between these guys and Barack Obama winning the election, this suburban white boy is happy to see that this country isn't as racist, conservative, and racially divisive as I thought.

2) Deerhunter- Microcastle/Weird Era Cont.
Yes, I haven't reviewed the "bonus album" that comes with Microcastle. But that doesn't change the fact that Microcastle itself is an incredible achievement for the band. As with the above TV On The Radio release, it polished and opened up the band's pop influences while still being very Deerhunter-y. Were I a lazy critic, I would say that all the pop songs ended up on the album while all the psychedelic/shoegazer stuff ended up on Weird Era Cont. But that's not entirely true. Weird Era Cont. is more like a midway point between Cryptograms and Microcastle. But I digress. As a one-two punch, the twin release from Deerhunter is brilliant noise pop and 2008's best bang-for-the-buck.

1) Fleet Foxes- Fleet Foxes (and the Sun Giant EP)
While Deerhunter officially paired their two releases from this year, the Fleet Foxes indirectly paired their EP with the self titled debut. As good as Sun Giant is, it can't help but feel like an appetizer for the album. I'm trying to keep my hyperbole in check here, but Fleet Foxes is the most fully formed and brilliant debut in recent memory. We're talking Surfer Rosa "fully formed and brilliant debut" territory here. If this were 2003 or 2004, Fleet Foxes would have been lumped in with the psych-folk movement. As it is, the band's phenomenally gorgeous vocal harmonies (here comes the Beach Boys comparison...!!) recall the old masters the Beach Boys while their music gathers from old Americana staples like folk and country as well as the tried and true classic rock and singer/songwriter soundscapes. Yet for as many reference points as you might have for the band, it doesn't change the fact that these songs are good beyond description. Well, there's that hyperbole sneaking in. So: album of the year. The end.

The Best Albums of 2008 Part 1

16) Beck - Modern Guilt
While he hasn't been releasing flat out bad music, Beck's cache has been muddled in recent years by a series of merely good albums with few surprises. Though it wasn't on the same level of the return of Portishead, Modern Guilt was one of my main surprises of 2008. The album sounds fresh and new, borrowing from modern day hip hop and 60s pop/rock and producing a concise, polished album of great songs.

15) and 14) Los Campesinos! - Hold On Now, Youngster.../We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed
While I haven't gotten around to reviewing these yet, Los Campesinos have, with the two albums they released this year, proven themselves to be as consistent and catchy as indie pop bands twice their age. The band deftly walk the indie rock line between sincerity and irony: song titles like '...And We Roll Our Eyes In Unison' may read more like titles of bad MySpace poetry but in actuality are damn good songs crammed with ideas and hooks. Fans of Belle & Sebastian and Architecture In Helsinki need apply.

13) The Dodos - Visiter
You initial point of reference for this album will probably be Animal Collective circa Sung Tongs, but The Dodos are much less psychedelic and drone-y and much more energetic and buoyant. The songs match intricate acoustic guitar to spastic, flailing percussion that recalls all sorts of exotic African/non-Western influences. All of this is more impressive because The Dodos are only a duo yet produce full bodied music ripe with dense production.

12) Atlas Sound - Let The Blind Lead Those Who See But Cannot Feel
While Deerhunter gave their noise/pop a restraint and polish with their album from 2008, Bradford Cox explored the electronic, ambient, and dream-pop headspaces with his 'solo' work under the Atlas Sound moniker. Let The Blind... makes for a hell of a headphones album, all glistening synthesizers, looped guitars, and longing, pained vocals. While not as immediately impressive as most of the albums on my list from this year, this one has been a return pleasure for me since its release very early in 2008.

11) Deerhoof - Offend Maggie
Deerhoof get better with time just as much as they stay good. Offend Maggie wisely adds a second guitarist to the line-up after an album with only one, bringing the band back to their 'classic' sound circa Milk Man and Runner's Four while still adding new wrinkles and twists to their now established sound. I suspect this new line-up have something even better ahead of them, but Offend Maggie is a damn good new beginning.

10) No Age - Nouns
Bands like No Age are the reason I haven't given up on music or hung myself. What I mean is, if you had asked me who No Age were at the start of 2008 I wouldn't have had a clue. Yet here I am, a few days before 2009 begins, and a band I had never heard of is on my list of best albums of 2008. This is why I love music: that endless discovery of new, great bands. That rush of new-ness coupled with excellence. Nouns is such a succinct, effortless slab of noise-pop that it's easy to underrate it in the grand scheme of things. My Bloody Valentine may never release another album or if they do it might be crap, but that's OK. Bands like No Age ensure that noise-pop will always have a future. And, err, a present.

9) Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
It's odd to revisit this music in the middle of winter because it's so quintessentially made for the warmer months, when you hear about breezes instead of wind chill factors and at the very worst you might have to wear jeans instead of shorts. Nevermind that this was one of the most hyped up and talked about releases of the first part of 2008. Nevermind all the comparisons to Afro-pop and Paul Simon's Graceland. Mind, though, how infectious and addictive this album is.

Video: The Beach Boys- Little Saint Nick

Even though Christmas is my least favorite holiday, I'll post this video because this is one of the few awesome holiday songs.

No updates tomorrow, of course.

Deerhunter- Microcastle

The one thing I took away from the Pink Floyd documentary Live At Pompeii wasn't that they were actually a great live band (they were, but that's not what I'm getting at). No, it was that, before Dark Side of the Moon, they were often criticized for being slaves to their technology. Roger Waters tries to deflect this, but there really was a leap from what had come before to the album they were about to release. Nobody thinks of Dark Side of the Moon as a compromising, sell out-style album yet it made the band far more popular and financially successful than they were before. Their music was still pretty odd, druggy and art rock-y and whatnot, but now it was paired with some instantly recognizable and memorable songs. Now, I'm not trying to compare Microcastle to Pink Floyd's legendary masterpiece, but I am trying to compare a criticism I've had for Deerhunter and a lot of other indie bands who pride themselves on textures, noise, and sheer awesome sound: where's the songs, guys?? Stripped of any electronics, Dark Side of the Moon would still be incredible music. And the same goes for Microcastle.

I used to always cringe when I heard that the new album from a band was more 'pop', for lack of a better term, than their previous releases. But if TV On The Radio's Dear Science taught me anything, it's that sometimes a little levity and polish goes a long way. Often the limits imposed on something force you to be more creative. David Lynch's more mainstream works are just as fascinating as his headtrip/surrealisms because he's got to make a sensical story. With Microcastle, Deerhunter wanted to focus on the 'microstructure' of songwriting and to have shorter, more concise songs, too.

This statement isn't going to make a lot of sense until I explain it, but: I've always suspected that I should love Deerhunter's Cryptograms more than I do. The same can be said for the solo album by Deerhunter frontman Bradford Cox, which also came out this year under the name Atlas Sound. Cryptograms and Let The Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel explore the territories of shoegazer, indie rock, ambient, dream-pop, and electronic music to varying extents and account for some of the most thrilling and interesting music of the last two years. Yet it took Microcastle to retroactively sell me on them because, as good as they are, they sometimes struck me as pastiche albums. You hear so many obvious influences on them that you begin to question whether the music is really that good or if it just reminds you so much of music you love you want to give it a pass. Microcastle, too, brings up obvious influences but it proves something that always lay under the psychedelic noise-pop of Cryptograms and the daydream ambient ballads of Let The Blind...: Bradford Cox is an incredible songwriter. After Dark Side of the Moon, no one thought of Pink Floyd as the lava lamp soundtrack/weird sound effects band. After Microcastle, no one will think of Deerhunter as only the shoegazer/dream pop lovers that they are. As thrilling as the guitar assault of Cryptograms was, as mesmerizing as the electronic textures of Let The Blind... was, they still had incredible songs under the hood.

The best way to describe Microcastle is to say that it's Deerhunter's 60s album. It still maintains their trademark sound of My Bloody Valentine meets Sonic Youth-at-their-druggiest meets experimental 70s pop ala Brian Eno and David Bowie. Now, though, they've peeled back a layer of experimentalism and let the songs breath. Even at its heaviest and noisiest, Microcastle is a pop album...though that's a relative concept. Play this for the average listener and it would still be druggy, noisey, and/or weird. As for my, the first time I heard the album I thought it was oddly plain. But I was mistaking restraint and an attention to moment-to-moment detail for what initially struck me as the band removing all the cool shoegazer and krautrock stuff. Whatever your initial impression may be, after a couple spins the hooks and sheer effortlessness of Microcastle completely win you over. And when I say it's their 60s album I mean it in terms of the pop edge of the thing as much as I do the production. If the songs of Cryptograms sounded like a dozen guitars layered on top of each other, Microcastle sounds like something that was recorded on an old fashioned four-or-eight-track tape machine. To put it another way, when the patented Deerhunter walls of sound crowd around you on this album, it serves the song and it sounds like it's being played live instead of processed and dropped on top of other tracks via ProTools.

If the opening track--with its slow descending guitar melody--sounds like something that could've easily fit on Cryptograms, then the next track 'Agoraphobia' lets you know what kind of album this'll really be. Written by one of the band's guitarists, it's downright melodic and classicist, recalling some long lost 80s art-pop band you've never heard of. 'Never Stops', with its repetitive-but-not-in-a-bad-way structure, demonstrates the strength of Bradford Cox's songwriting skill, adding layers of guitar squall on the chorus before stripping back down to the simple backing without missing a beat. The title track is a minimalist solo lament by Cox with only a guitar to keep him company until the 2:25 mark, when the drums kick in and we have a ripping rock song that reminds me of a slightly slowed down version of Brian Eno's 'Needles In The Camel's Eye.' Piano is used to haunting effect on 'Green Jacket', while the closer 'Twilight At Carbon Lake' has the same slow jam arpeggio style as Radiohead's 'A Wolf At The Door' but ends with an astonishing guitar climax that is Deerhunter at their shoegazer best. Perhaps the album's best song is the downright twangy 'Saved By Old Times', which borrows acoustic guitar, what sounds like a 12 string Rickenbacker, and a galloping chorus from the best Beatles song circa 1965 never written. Oh, and it's got a bizarre sound collage around the two minute mark that somehow works.

Really, though, what I find most impressive about Microcastle is how much I keep finding to love about it. The general idea is that difficult/experimental albums should reward repeat listening, but this album is great example to the contrary. It's Deerhunter's most accessible and 'pop' album yet, and while that's still a relative concept, Microcastle is all the more incredible for having such depth. Every song has some detail or hook that'll peek your interest on the next listen and, like Cryptograms, it still all holds together like a cohesive work. Without a doubt in my mind, Microcastle is a fantastic album and the best thing Bradford Cox and company have done to date. Essential listening for anyone wondering whether all of us indie rock/music obsessives are full of it or not.

Album of the Week: Portishead- Third

There's something to be said for bands growing into their music. The Grateful Dead were young men in the 60s, singing about drinking and hard times, and at some point they grew into this kind of music until it broke your heart to listen to Jerry Garcia sing a ballad. It stopped sounding like snotty youngsters idealizing old bluesmen from the 40s and started sounding like old men who had been through a lot. Similarly, rhe last time the world saw Portishead, they were ten years younger and seemed to be playing at jazz club ambience, 60s film noir, and longing torch songs. Sure, their guitarist Adrian Utley fit in but he was already 40ish, had played in many jazz bands, wore dark sunglasses, and looked mysterious. Seductress Beth Gibbons--who I always picture in my head as sitting on a stool and chain-smoking--and music master Geoff Barrow looked a bit young for the whole thing. Now, though, it would all fit perfectly. The band have been gone for ten years, have presumably been through a lot, and just their sheer absence underscores the feel of their music.

Ironically, then, their 'comeback' album, Third, distances itself from their trademark style. Gone is the soundtrack/filmic feel, the 60s soul/jazz vibe, and the genre defining trip hop-isms. Right when you think they're old enough to authentically fit with that stuff they give you this dark, experimental, and complex electronic album, which brings them fully into the 21st century. They no longer sound like refugees who wish it was the 60s. Now they're down with the 70s, 80s, 90s, and the present. This is downtempo electronic music for all times and seasons.

Who could've predicted that Portishead would really return this year?? Furthermore, who could've predicted that their new album would be so good, so essential?? I mean, for god's sake...a trip hop album in 2008 that is one of the best albums of the year?? You sure you don't mean 1998?? But no, Third is from this year, and it's excellent. Trip hop is vital again. For those about to nod along slowly while sipping scotch and smoking cigarettes, we salute you.

Though a cursory listen to this album will still sound like Portishead, their style has shifted. It's a much more dramatic change from the first two albums than Portishead was from Dummy. No longer does the music feel like it's built on samples or borrowed atmosphere. Third is still based around electronic loops and Beth's stellar vocals but the loops are neither the jazz/soul samples of the first album nor the "live band, recorded to vinyl, and then sampled" style of the second. Third sounds and feels like the least organic of their albums because of it, but it gains a complexity for it.

The music of Third is simultaneously denser and more free than what came before. Take, for example, 'We Carry On', which could be a cover of a Silver Apples song in another lifetime; at some point a guitar solo comes in to lighten the heavy pounding of the drums and organ. The superb 'Machine Gun' recalls vintage Bjork. The beats land like, well, gun shots and explosions, but there's enough silence and space before and after their impact to make the punch that much more impactful. The real treasure of the album, though, is hearing what they have next up their sleeves. There are all sorts of brilliant touches, genuine surprises here and there that make one imagine they spent on a long, long time crafting these songs. 'Magic Doors' has a successfully non-funky cowbell loop and some incredibly dramatic piano chording...and then there's the insane free jazz horn breakdown around the 2:30 mark. 'Deep Water', the album's biggest surprise, is a completely acoustic lament that lets the listener come up for air. And 'Nylon Smile' has a warping psychedelic synthesizer loop and detailed production that reminds me of something Radiohead might've recorded circa Kid A.

If Third wasn't 2008's biggest surprise, I don't know what was. Not only did Portishead release a new album...not only was it good...not only was it arguably their best album yet...it ended up being one of the year's best releases. Though hardcore fans may wish the band would return to their previous style--especially now that they're older and it seems like it would be more 'authentic' now--Third shows that they're capable of other, greater things.

Of Montreal- Skeletal Lamping

The only thing I can say after listening to this album is, what the hell?? Keep in mind I am not averse to difficult albums or stylistic changes. But wow, is this album a mess. And not in a good way. Indie rock isn't exactly synonymous with sexiness, and while it's not averse to irony and kitsch, it's kind of mystifying to see someone take all of this to a ridiculous extreme. Everything about Skeletal Lamping makes me uncomfortable: that it's a concept album about Kevin Barnes's alter ego, a middle aged, African American transsexual named Georgie Fruit; that it expands on the nascent funk, R&B, and sex obsessed elements of Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? to an extreme; that it unsuccessfully attempts a breakthrough in songform by making songs into mini-epics and having most of them segue into each other.

I admire the bravery of this release but that doesn't change the fact that the whole thing comes off like something a friend might joke about while drunk. "Hey man, my alter ego is a black transsexual...and he's middle aged...and I'm going to write an album about that and have it be all funky and like Prince and stuff...awesome, right??" Maybe it's just me, but that's not really the thing I think of when I think Of Montreal. Sure, there was a lot of sex and a good deal of Prince-esque R&B with falsetto vocals on Hissing Fauna but it wasn't the main course and it was done tastefully. By contrast, Skeletal Lamping is downright pornographic and it's like an entire album of Kevin Barnes trying to be something he's not.

There are moments scattered across these 15 songs that almost equal Hissing Fauna, but that's all they are: moments. Certain bands can get away with this schizophrenic, mini-epic songwriting style. The Fiery Furnaces spring immediately to mind, but I'm also thinking about the last Sunset Rubdown album, Random Spirit Lover, which similarly played with form and some of the songs flowed into each other. But the Fiery Furnaces have been doing their thing long enough that they know the difference between something that rewards repeat listening and something that is, seemingly, changing arbitrarily and unnecessarily. After all, not every Fiery Furnaces song is made up of three or more smaller snippets. They develop ideas as they naturally demand, letting some songs bloom into sweet ballads and others crash down the mountain of ideas. Yet on Skeletal Lamping the moments of genuine greatness are watered down by a morass of needless repetition or jarring changes. I can really do without hearing Kevin Barnes scream for no reason or repeat "we can do it softcore" over and over. As for Sunset Rubdown, well, that album just gets better with each listen. I still don't have a handle on Skeletal Lamping and there isn't enough to latch unto to make me want to go back. On a side note, what's with putting 'Id Engager', the lead single, on the end of the album?? Furthermore, why is this song the single?? It's not catchy and honestly pretty terrible.

But let's put all of this beard stroking music critic stuff in the cupboard and talk about this matter as fans. As with Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea by the Silver Jews and Arm's Way by Islands, two other 2008 releases I wasn't keen on, the initial impression is simple-but-vague disappointment. You know how sometimes you get the new whatever by whichever band, author, movie director, etc. you love, and you experience it for the first time and then sit there going "well, that wasn't very good"?? That's exactly what the two above albums and this one leave me with when I listen to them. I don't like this one nearly as much Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? and even on its own terms it's sub-par. It's hard for me to imagine anyone but the most hardcore Of Montreal fans listening to this and thinking it's their best work.

Skeletal Lamping wouldn't be quite so bad if the music was good. I have a lot of problems with the concept and the lyrics--I can't overstate how stupid the Georgie Fruit 'character' is and how embarrassing the lyrics get--but the music is also weak. As I said earlier, there are some great moments here or there but the end result is an album that doesn't feel like either a set of 15 songs or an unified whole. Rather, it's a scattershot effort with precious few highs. Kevin Barners's idea was to have an album packed with all kinds of brilliant song-ettes that flowed into each other and constantly changed, but the actual product comes off like a sprawling mess with very little flow or logic. This idea can work but it has to be done well. I don't want to come off as a broken record, but these mini-epics made up of smaller songs just aren't that good. Moreover, while Skeletal Lamping is actually shorter than Hissing Fauna it feels much longer.

Writing this review was my way of coming to terms with and defining my dislike for Skeletal Lamping but even if my reasons don't sway you, the simple reality is that the only people who are going to like this album are those who adore this band and can overlook/enjoy its flaws. I really wanted to love this album, too. It seemed like the kind of thing I should by all rights love: "hey, it's Of Montreal doing the Fiery Furnaces!!" Unfortunately, the songform experimentation is mostly a failure and the 'concept' and lyrics are awful. Maybe the next one will pull it off. I just hope Kevin Barnes ditches the Prince worship and lame concepts and gets back to writing great songs. I can't believe I'm typing this, but Skeletal Lamping may well be the biggest let down of 2008.