Album Rating: 4.0

Hissing Fauna is like the 7th best OM album, personally. If anyone can get behind a Barnes' project it will enrich your life though so whatever.

Album Rating: 3.5

I think this is very infectious, just not consistently which actually helps build up to & highlight the obvious hooks, it’s very well balanced. Flows wonderfully.

Album Rating: 3.5

Listening to 'Satanic Panic' now & it honestly sounds basic compared to this, if I want a summery psych pop album (which I never do, really) then Hissing Fauna has more personality.

Album Rating: 4.0

Which albums have you checked Demon?



edit: several I see, but you only really dig this and Fauna huh?

Album Rating: 3.5

Yeah, I must have a weird relationship with this band. False Priest has its moments, the highs are very enjoyable

Album Rating: 4.0

i can't get over how catchy and enjoyable this is after every new listen. I hope those of you who are iffy on this currently stick with it and give it a few more listens. and yeah, whoever said Satanic Panic was the best must be completely blinded by it's nostalgia, because it's very clearly his first attempt at a solo record... (and that's coming from someone who thoroughly enjoys Satanic Panic)

Album Rating: 4.0

Press release statement by Barnes for anyone interested: "Two important events occurred during the making of White Is Relic/Irrealis Mood. I became "Simulated Reality" paranoid and I fell in LOVE. Well a lot more happened during the process of writing and recording, but those are the two big ones. I also reached a healthy point of self-forgiveness for my failed marriage and became deeply educated in the lies of America the Great. I feel like a switch was recently turned on in my brain and now I'm beginning to see through the lies that have been fed to me my whole life by the masters of media and by those who control and manipulate the narrative of our cultural identity and social order. My paranoia began during the presidential election cycle and reached a dangerous peak shortly after the inauguration. In the meantime I watched and read countless works of art in a mad effort to be reminded of how many truly brilliant people there are living/struggling among us and to try to maintain a positive outlook. The works of Angela Davis, Noam Chomsky, Chris Kraus, Ta-Nehisi Coates, and the Autobiographies of Malcolm X and Mark E Smith were all great inspirations, to name a few." continued....

Album Rating: 4.0

"Musically, I was very inspired by the extended dance mixes that people used to make for pop singles back in the ‘80s. It's so cool how a lot of the 80's hits had these really intricate and interesting longer versions that wouldn't get played on the radio and could only be heard in the clubs. I used that template with these tracks, I wanted them all to feel like the extended "club edit" of album tracks. I also decided to abandon the "live band in a room" approach that I had been using on the recent albums and work more on my own or remotely with collaborators. I used the same drum sample packs throughout because I wanted the album to have a rhythmic continuity to it. I wanted the drums to have a strong and consistent identity, similar to how Prince's Linn Electronics LM-1 drum machine played such an important role on his classic albums. Zac Colwell also played a huge role on this album, adding saxophones and synths to most of the songs. I also got a lot of help from long time collaborators, and "of Montreal" touring members, Clayton Rychlik and JoJo Glidewell. The two title concept came to me when I was thinking about how difficult it is to frame the message of a song with just one title, because so often the songs are about so many different subjects. ‘White Is Relic’ was inspired by James Baldwin’s writings regarding the creation and propagation of a toxic American White identity. I've come to learn how it's just a tool wielded by the 1% to give poor white people a false sense of superiority in an effort to keep the masses placated and numb to how deeply we're all getting fucked by our capitalist rulers. An ‘Irrealis Mood’ is a linguistic indicator that something isn't yet reality but does have the potential to become so. I'm always searching for new identities so this concept of the death of "Whiteness" appeals to me greatly. Might be the only way to save the world."

Album Rating: 3.5

Interesting read Veldin. Biggest problem with this album for me is once I’ve listened to it the hooks are embedded in my brain for the foreseeable. Makes me want to jam it again, even when I can’t.



So good, Sput is sleeping on this. Average is blasphemy.

Album Rating: 4.0

Most people can't crack OM in general Demon. Just the way it is with them. This is an excellent project that happens to resonate with you. You 2.5'd a couple really good OM albums and gave my favorite a 3 though so band is totally YMMV.

Album Rating: 2.0 | Sound Off

Will no one stand up for the actually good of Montreal material of the late-90s?

Album Rating: 4.0

I love Cherry Peel and Coquelicot but find The Gay Parade...a difficult listen.

Album Rating: 2.0 | Sound Off

Gay parade's one of their best, you nut

Album Rating: 4.0

That's what everyone keeps telling me. I should probably revisit but the whimsy is so overbearing.



Nici Coco and the Invisible Tree is one the best songs ever though.

Album Rating: 2.5 | Sound Off

What’s their best album Sandwich?

Album Rating: 3.5

I hear too much Sgt. Pepper influence in Satanic & considering that’s when he started to ‘break away’ from that sort of sound, I hate to think how derivative the early stuff is.

Album Rating: 3.5

@Watch: I really should revisit Skeletal Lamping, tried back when Hissing Fauna was a regular jam but couldn’t get into it.

Album Rating: 4.0

Do it. I liked that one immediately but it really grew over time.

Album Rating: 2.0 | Sound Off

@doof it's either gay parade or Coquelicot for me

Album Rating: 4.5

barnes' songwriting has been very consistent throughout his career, despite all the different genres. there's been a couple missteps, but that's expected from releasing 20 albums in 20 years. I just don't get the people who only like one era / album when all the songs are quintessential kevin all the way through



I can see it applying if you only like the really early stripped down bedroom pop (cherry peel, bedside drama, bird who ate, young froth, early 4 track, kinda aldhils), but if you like coquelicot there's no reason why you wouldn't like paralytic and skeletal lamping which follow the same formula just with different instruments