Of Montreal’s sound has always veered wildly – from psychedelic pop to vaudeville – with Kevin Barnes’s scattershot creativity the energy that binds, and this 13th record is no exception.
Around Satanic Panic in the Attic in 2004, Barnes took to writing mostly by himself, spearheading a fruitful period which culminated in 2007's majestic Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?
Aureate Gloom builds on those previously explored worlds; disco meets heavy guitars on Bassem Sabry, Empyrean Abattoir's skeletal percussion morphs into garage-rock, and the Marc Bolan-inspired Monolithic Egress sits beside the punk of Chthonian Dirge for Uruk the Other.
It channels Lou Reed and The Modern Lovers, and clearly references The Kinks, but Barnes’s use of evocative language is all his own.
