of Montreal

Psychedelic Pop as a Throughline 

When I was in middle school, I listened to a band called Neutral Milk Hotel by chance.

When I first listened to them, I was kind of entranced by the music. At first, I had no idea what was going on, but eventually I loved their music so much I wanted to find as many acts as possible that were similar. 

Pretty quickly, I came across a band named “of Montreal.” Their song “Gronlandic Edit” was the first I had listened to, and I was oddly interested from the start. Its psychedelic pop sound was something I immediately clicked with and wanted to chase more of.  

As I explored more of their music, it became pretty apparent they had a unique progression from other bands in the collective they were in, The Elephant 6 Recording Company. While other bands would almost exclusively either keep their indie rock sound or harsher, experimental edge, of Montreal had a defined progression to a more loose, electronic sound while keeping the apparent psychedelic pop influence.  

In the beginning of their career, of Montreal had a distinct psychedelic and twee pop sound. Songs like “Everything Disappears When You Come Around” and “When You’re Loved Like You Are” from their debut album “Cherry Peel” are good examples of this. They mix the psychedelic and twee sounds well, especially considering the dominant use of acoustic guitar and carefree lyricism of both songs.  

As you continue through their discography through the late nineties and early 2000s, you can hear the psychedelic sound emerge from being alongside the twee pop they created to being in the forefront of their music. The album “Coquelicot Asleep in the Poppies: A Variety of Whimsical Verse” is a good example of this development. The introduction “Good Morning Mr. Edminton” sets up the album well by setting up the theatrical tone of the album while pushing its psychedelic stylings to the forefront.  

Some of their most stark transformations appear in the mid 2000s. Their albums “Satanic Panic in the Attic” and “The Sunlandic Twins” not only polish and perfect their pop stylings from earlier albums; they usher in a new era of more tight songs overall for the band.

Songs like “Disconnect the Dots” and “My British Tour Diary” from “Satanic Panic” are catchier than songs they’ve made before, and “Disconnect the Dots” especially has a good use of melody. Songs like “So Begins Our Alabee” and “Forecast Fascist Future” from “Sunlandic” expound upon the sound of the previous album while being super polished.

“So Begins Our Alabee” especially sounds like it was made for the specific purpose of being danced to. 

Their next album, “Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?” signals a natural evolution towards theatrical elements of “Coquelicot” while retaining the more polished and catchy pop elements from the previous two albums. This album arguably has the most overtly confessional lyrics out of any of Montreal albums up to this point. In the song “Heimdalsgate Like a Promethean Curse,” Kevin Barnes talks about his depression directly in lyrics like “Cause my own inner cosmology / Has become too dense to navigate.” While he sings those lyrics, there are melodramatic synths throughout, which adds to the more theatrical vibe to me.  

After “Fauna,” of Montreal became decidedly looser in their songs over time. You can see glimpses of this in songs like “Women’s Studies Victims,” where they would use seemingly unrelated ideas throughout the song in an interesting way. Throughout most of the 2010s, they had this mentality through their albums. Albums like “False Priest” were decidedly more pop focused, while albums like “Paralytic Stalks” focused more heavily on the psychedelia. 

Lots of ideas came and went, but they started being very synth heavy starting on their album “White is Relic / Irrealis Mood.” Their sound starting on this album was still psychedelic, but they recreated that vibe using mostly synthesizers. The song “Plateau Phase / No Careerism No Corruption” retained their trademark vibe, just under a new, synth-based management. The song “Writing the Circles / Orgone Topics” brought in a more spacey vibe, complete with more atmospheric-sounding synths and Barnes’ pitched-up vocals. 

 Of Montreal’s sound has consistently been updated since the beginning. Even on their newest songs like “I Can Read Smoke” they use synths while also trying to include lounge influences. One thing has remained the same, though, which is that their psychedelic sound and vibe have stayed.