RRR: Of Montreal - Coquelicot Asleep In The Poppies
April 24th 2009 18:34
It is very difficult to keep up with all the good music being put out year after year. It should be no surprise that we often come across records way after their initial release date. I am no exception.
Along those lines, I have been going over amazon.com’s best indie record list and checking some I may have over-looked (more than I expected). To that end, I recently bought a couple off the list that I had heard good reviews: Sonic Youth’s Daydream Nation and Of Montreal’s Coquelicot Asleep In The Poppies: A Variety Of Whimsical Verse.
Today, I thought I’d share my patented Retro Record Review (RRR) for the Of Montreal LP. Hopefully, I can help some of you in a similar position as I (namely, painfully out-of-step with past and current musical trends).
First of all, this record was not what I expected. Not your typical indie record. Absent is the guitar distortion and hipster irony we come to expect from such artists. Of Montreal seems to be completely and utterly influenced by the Beatles middle period (Revolver, Pepper, Mystery Tour). The instrumentation is carnival-esque and the non-sequitor psychedelic concept album storyline is quite bizarre. You can just imagine them sitting in the studio saying, “Can we add a string quartet, a French horn and harpsichord in this song? Oh, yes we can”.
You have to love some of the wordplay on this record. Look at some of the song titles: "The Events Leading Up to the Collapse of Detective Dulllight", "The Hopeless Opus or The Great Battle of the Unfriendly Ridiculous". The song called "Upon Settling on the Frozen Island, Lecithin Presents Claude and Coquelicot With His Animal Creations for them to Approve or Reject (The Rejected Inventions Walk Towards The Reverse Magnetizer)" is just the phrases “Oh Yes” and “Oh No” repeated for 67 seconds.
Let’s face it: there are worse bands that someone would want to emulate (can you imagine a band devoted to Styx?) and I have to hand it to Of Montreal: they have kept this tradition surprisingly refresh. All-in-all, I have to admit that I like this record. I don’t love it; some of that can get tedious (and it is a long record), but enjoyable. You have to appreciate the effort and creativity. It is very easy for a band to hide behind distortion, power chords and angst. It takes guts to re-invent Sgt. Pepper.
On a scale of 1 to 10 (1 being Styx’s Kilroy Was Here and 10 being Led Zeppelin’s Physical Graffiti), I give it a 6.5 – 7.0
Along those lines, I have been going over amazon.com’s best indie record list and checking some I may have over-looked (more than I expected). To that end, I recently bought a couple off the list that I had heard good reviews: Sonic Youth’s Daydream Nation and Of Montreal’s Coquelicot Asleep In The Poppies: A Variety Of Whimsical Verse.
Today, I thought I’d share my patented Retro Record Review (RRR) for the Of Montreal LP. Hopefully, I can help some of you in a similar position as I (namely, painfully out-of-step with past and current musical trends).
Of Montreal
First of all, this record was not what I expected. Not your typical indie record. Absent is the guitar distortion and hipster irony we come to expect from such artists. Of Montreal seems to be completely and utterly influenced by the Beatles middle period (Revolver, Pepper, Mystery Tour). The instrumentation is carnival-esque and the non-sequitor psychedelic concept album storyline is quite bizarre. You can just imagine them sitting in the studio saying, “Can we add a string quartet, a French horn and harpsichord in this song? Oh, yes we can”.
You have to love some of the wordplay on this record. Look at some of the song titles: "The Events Leading Up to the Collapse of Detective Dulllight", "The Hopeless Opus or The Great Battle of the Unfriendly Ridiculous". The song called "Upon Settling on the Frozen Island, Lecithin Presents Claude and Coquelicot With His Animal Creations for them to Approve or Reject (The Rejected Inventions Walk Towards The Reverse Magnetizer)" is just the phrases “Oh Yes” and “Oh No” repeated for 67 seconds.
Let’s face it: there are worse bands that someone would want to emulate (can you imagine a band devoted to Styx?) and I have to hand it to Of Montreal: they have kept this tradition surprisingly refresh. All-in-all, I have to admit that I like this record. I don’t love it; some of that can get tedious (and it is a long record), but enjoyable. You have to appreciate the effort and creativity. It is very easy for a band to hide behind distortion, power chords and angst. It takes guts to re-invent Sgt. Pepper.
On a scale of 1 to 10 (1 being Styx’s Kilroy Was Here and 10 being Led Zeppelin’s Physical Graffiti), I give it a 6.5 – 7.0
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