When the new Of Montreal starts, and one hears lyrics about "rock and roll is dead", a listener knows a grueling time lies ahead. Folks who kill the form can't use it anyway, you know? Lady on the Cusp is a laborious slog enlivened by moments of real creativity. However, far too often this feels like someone throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks.
A good deal more disjointed than the last Of Montreal album I reviewed, Lady on the Cusp veers between Bowie-inflected synth-pop ("2 Depressed 2 Fuck") and Nineties-style noise rock ("Music Hurts the Head"). I applaud Kevin Barnes taking some risks here, but I really don't think there's any point to most of this. What flashes of successful invention are to be found here are so mired in a morass of bad ideas that the path to pulling them out as a listener is too tedious to consider.
Even while I concede that "Sea Mines That Mr Gone" is deftly compelling, and that "Rude Girl on Rotation" modestly lovely, the majority of Lady on the Cusp isn't something that I can recommend. And I hate writing negative reviews. But this band have been around for forever and I just felt like I wasn't hearing anything here that I hadn't heard a better version of back in a past era from Of Montreal. Kevin is trying here -- and maybe too hard -- but very, very little of this resonated with me, and far too much of it felt forced.
Lady on the Cusp by Of Montreal is out now via Polyvinyl.
[Photo: Shervin Lainez]