Music critics, and often, the publicity machine that throws the meat into their cages, tend to push overt narratives for each artist’s new album.
Phrases like “a stunning debut, “a return to form” or “their best album since (fill in the blank)” get tossed around rather liberally. But occasionally that narrative really does describe an artist’s creative trajectory.
Take the long-running indie rock act Of Montreal, an Athens, Ga.-based band that ran away with many critics’ hearts in 2007 with the stunning “Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?”
Leader Kevin Barnes’ jittery laptop meditation on depression and relationships traded Brian Wilson’s melodies for ’80s synth-pop, making it the year’s most danceable headphone masterpiece.
His personal demons exorcised, now Barnes is questioning his own identity via R&B collage and indie-funk rhythms on the new album “Skeletal Lamping.” We talked to Barnes about narratives, “idiot” critics and more in advance of the band’s Sunday show at the Ogden Theatre.
Q: Your stage show has gotten more grandiose lately, and a recent New York show even featured a horse on stage. I’m guessing you’ve scaled it back for your road dates.
A: Actually, the only difference is there’s probably not going to be a horse. But everything we did in New York we’ve been doing every night. It’s a really crazy show.
Q: How would you describe it?
A: It probably has more in common with the ambitious artists of the ’70s like Alice Cooper, Bowie and Zappa — people who really wanted to spend a lot of time and money to put on these over-the- top performances. What we’re doing is more than just costume changes. We have five performance artists and completely different theatrical things happening from song to song, three giant video screens, all kinds of things.
Q: A lot of personal trauma went into making “Hissing Fauna…” What, if any, theme has emerged for “Skeletal Lamping”?
A: I guess it would be investigating identity, and the fluid nature of people’s individual identity and self-perception. It’s also playing with gender roles and examining sexual politics.
Q: The new album has been getting some really polarized reviews. Do the negative ones from websites like Pitchfork ever get under your skin?
A: I wasn’t bummed out necessarily that they gave it a bad review. I was bummed that they gave it such a thoughtless review. My attitude about this record is that you don’t have to like it or enjoy listening to it, but you have to acknowledge that it’s an exceptional record. If you can’t, then you’re an idiot. You’re just small-minded and you should feel ashamed.
Q: That’s a pretty strong statement.
A: Well, I don’t think it’s necessarily a great record, but it’s at least an interesting record. People say it’s too fragmented, too schizophrenic. ‘He knows how to write pop songs. Why doesn’t he just do it?’ I wanted to make it that way.
Q: Do you feel constrained by expectations?
A: Sometimes… It’s like, why does every album have to be just like the one before it? Personally, when a band comes out with a record that’s different than their contemporaries’, it’s exciting to me. It’s something to appreciate. But a lot of people are so lazy and they just want something to make sense and have an immediate connection — and in a way, be disposable. The consumer mentality is destroying the album as an art form.
John Wenzel: 303-954-1642 or jwenzel@denverpost.com
Of Montreal
Indie rock. Ogden Theatre, 935 E. Colfax Ave., with Icy Demons. Sunday. 8 p.m. $20. 303-830-8497 or .
