Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?

Hissing Fauna talks synth-pop on high summits. Apart from its girlfriend/boyfriend break-up and post-relationship status lyrical content, the music is mature enough to overcome something like Hellogoodbye. Unlike most indie albums which lack a hit song, Hissing Fauna has “Gronlandic Edit” and probably “A Sentence of Sorts in Kongsvinger”. The disk is split in half with the 12-minute confessionary “The Past Is a Grotesque Animal” being grotesquely put in the hot core of the album just where the music and hits are topping. This turning point divulges a slow downfall which continues to quench the album constantly until the end of the final “We Were Born the Mutants Again with Leofling”. Now I’m not the one who judges the tracklisting, but I’m sure there are miles of synth-pop/rock fans out there who easily skip the long track placed on the peak of the album, just like they easily skipped “Pass the Hatchet I Think I’m Goodkind” on Yo La Tengo’s “I’m Not Afraid of You and I’ll Beat Your Ass”. It’s not about the cons of 12 minute songs; it’s about where to put it and how it will make sense. Anyhow, this record has been a great success among its contemporaries and topped many charts in 2007. Many found it similar to Deerhoof which I totally disagree, Of Montreal is more coherent and somewhat less unpredictable, and has the advantage of a vocalist almost more reasonable than a Japanese girl who you’re desperate to find when she’s singing English and when Japanese.