Of Montreal hasn't gone a year without releasing some kind of new, evolved material since their debut album Cherry Peel in 1997. Lead singer Kevin Barnes repeatedly claims the group's new album, Paralytic Stalks to be his most personal.
Barnes has written and produced most of Of Montreal's tracks since the start of the band, so when he claims that his album is going to be personal, it's going to be really personal.
With that in mind, Paralytic Stalks contains lyrics with fun references to parasites, blood, exposed brains, the time Barnes perhaps slipped in his own vomit, and the enjoyment of making people cry.
True to Barnes' style, such lyrics are mostly sung in an upbeat tone, though Paralytic Stalks contains such a cacophony of sound that many of these lyrics remain indiscernible over the album's orchestrated pop clamor. That being said, it's possible to listen to the entire album and not have a clue about what Barnes is singing about.
Past the first song on Stalks -- "Gelid Ascent," which ends up with a cool Oasis-like stadium-rock sound to it -- I honestly wanted to write this album off as noise at first. That supposed orchestrated pop clamor of the album really just sounded like clamor to me. In fact, I still held that sentiment when I interviewed Barnes about a week ago. I thought it lacked the melody and hooks that Of Montreal's previous albums had.
Then, a couple of full listens later, it clicked. This is still Of Montreal. They're still loveable. So Paralytic Stalks couldn't appear in an Outback Steakhouse commercial, but there is some sense in this album's off-kilter sound.
I mean, Of Montreal has always been off-kilter. That's a given. Point is, Stalks still provides the intriguing glam-rockish psychedelic circus of sound that Of Montreal has always provided one way or another.
So, Barnes claims that Paralytic Stalks is a dark record. It isn't a brooding, dark record, like falling into the depths of a black metal album or something, obviously. Though, it would be funny to see Barnes performing in a black-metal getup... as his dark alter ego.
Barnes explained in his interview here that Stalks doesn't involve the likes of Georgie Fruit, or any other alter egos per se. Barnes is simply performing as his great self. Maybe that metal alter ego will appear in a later, heavier album, as Barnes hinted to us.
Rocks Off: Let's start off with an obvious one. What do you think your new album Paralytic Stalks says about you?
Kevin Barnes: It says that I'm a very charming man. It also probably says that I'm like a really fucked-up person, probably, so somewhere in the middle. Somewhere in the middle. Yeah. Probably not very charming, actually.
Paralytic Stalks came from a very dark place, and I hope that it reaches people that are in a similar state of mind and it makes them feel less alone and less crazy or whatever.
RO: Is there anything you could specifically attribute to that feeling?
KB: No, I think it's just, you know, being conscious. It's just something that is sort of in touch with my internal world or whatever. I go through phases sometimes where I think it's just, you know, personal imbalances. It's stuff that everyone goes through. Sometimes you're in a darker space than other times.
RO: Yeah, I think that's something we could all relate to. Is there any persona that you would like to attribute to Paralytic Stalks, or is this album, I guess you could say, in first person?
KB: Yeah it's definitely in first person. It's definitely directly from my personal life and I wanted to, I guess just felt, very naturally driven to make a very personal confession, a more intimate sort of record.
I'll do a persona sometimes if I'm in a better state of mind. If I'm in a happier state of mind it makes sense do a persona thing than If I'm in a more dark, frustrated mood. A persona is sort of... it's sort of a really difficult thing to pin down and say that oh, that's not me, that's a persona because of course everything you create is coming from you anyways. It can't come from the outside.
So, there's always going to be personas, but sometimes you use it as a device. You know, you use it as a writing device, a creative device, or whatever you use to create a persona so that you can sort of put yourself into a state of mind that you would actually feel most directly related to your most personal experiences.
So, I think it's still a personal thing, but you're able to kind of feel and say things that you wouldn't necessarily feel were true to your real life. They're sort of fantasy things.
