Of Montreal
Lousy with Sylvianbriar
Reviewed by: Lexi Bissonnette
Of Montreal’s newest 11-track album, Lousy with Sylvianbriar, is their 12th release. Even 12 albums in, the garage band psychedelic sound is strong and pulls everything great from the genre into their work. Every track had a strong sound and flowed well together. Overall this album was a great tribute to the genre with eerie sounds, synthesized sounding vocals, odd song titles and even odder lyrics within the songs. The only downside was many of the fantastic instrumental breaks were broken into with lyrics that came out of the blue and would have been best left to just the playing.
With track titles that include “Fugitive Air”, “Obsidian Current”, “Amphibian Days” and “Sirens of Your Toxic Spirit”, the album is filled with the quirkiness one expects from garage band psychedelic albums. While all the tracks have the right sound, “Sirens of Your Toxic Spirit” and “Amphibian Days” are decidedly more mellow and seem a bit strange as they are both placed after more high energy upbeat tracks. “Belle Glad Missionaries” is perhaps the standout track on the album. It is the most upbeat and changes from the traditional sound making it stand out against the other 10 tracks. Many tracks, like “Obsidian Currents” have stronger instrumentals with a strange link of diatribe lyrics that do and don’t mesh with the music playing behind them.
Rating: Badass
