Skeletal Lamping

We Say...

Review by Lindsey Thomas

Any good concept album has a compelling character at its core, and Skeletal Lamping is no exception. Protagonist Georgie Fruit isn't just any transgender middle-aged black man — he has undergone multiple sex changes, making him the perfect alter ego for charismatic and chameleonic Of Montreal frontman Kevin Barnes, whose musical persona is capricious, unsettled and over-the-top. And also very horny.

Skeletal Lamping is packed with blush-worthy come-ons draped in imitation-Prince squeals. Georgie, throughout the album, comes across alternately as a savvy bedroom connoisseur and a disposable plaything for the sexually curious. He's a product of the disco era, and his after-bar stories are set to limber bass lines and a driving beat. But the quieter moments reveal his insecurity, his damaged self-esteem and contemplation of yet another surgery.

Despite the personal crisis that shapes the album's narrative, Barnes, perhaps unsurprisingly, never loses his playful side. In "For Our Elegant Caste," for instance, he refers to Georgie's transformation as "a freaky permutation, something like Voltron," making clear that Georgie's stints under the knife didn't sacrifice his sense of humor.

As they have graduated and mutated from modest indie pop to extravagant, massive glam-pop, Of Montreal's vision has become grander, and their approach more intricate. An album like Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? with its kaleidoscopic sound palette (and album cover) piled sounds and ideas and moods and approaches in elegant layers. Skeletal Lamping takes it even farther, with results that require patience. But with its majestic three-part falsetto harmonies and engrossing narrative, it's patience well spent.