“A golden despondency” is how Kevin Barnes translates the meaning behind Aureate Gloom, the title he gave of Montreal’s thirteenth full-length album. The oxymoron is one Barnes says best describes the overall state of his life and mental outlook while working on the record — penning lyrics so personal they sound like entries ripped from a journal that should be permanently kept under lock and key.
Barnes has taken character-driven songwriting to new heights. The thing is, I think each “character” Barnes has taken on have all been elements of himself. Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer seemed to be the most biographical he’d gotten on any album up to that point, using that record as a jumping off point into two albums(Skeletal Lamping and False Priest) where he got lost in those record’s worlds. In 2013 with the release of Lousy With Sylvianbriar, Barnes opened the studio doors to friends and recorded as a real band, live in the studio directly to tape.
The result was a buzzing, breathing record filled with late 60s nostalgia by way of the Stones and Bob Dylan. Now, with Aureate Gloom Kevin Barnes stuck with that living, breathing formula in the studio and traded in the late 60s nostalgia for mid-70s New York grime. The Stones and Dylan have been shelved for Television’s beatnik post-punk and Talking Heads’ jitters. of Montreal haven’t sounded this vital and in-the-moment since 2007.
I think the most striking thing about Aureate Gloom is how good this band sounds. They sound like a cohesive, rock ‘n roll machine willing to perform whatever pops into Kevin Barnes’ head and with great ease and vigor. Barnes did the studio loner thing for quite a few years, and with much success.
of Montreal is nothing if not an ever-changing experiment, that’s precisely what we LOVE and look forward to….but I’m sorry, after listening a week now to the pre-released album, I can’t even find the right words to convey how magnificently Kevin Barnes and gang have OUTDONE themselves, once again!….this band is basically a rolling collective, much like Tame Impala with that other intrepid Kevin and his merry marauders, so the suspense of unpredictability looms large….”AUREATE GLOOM” IS A MASTERWORK, period….each musician found ways to stretch out creatively in directions I never anticipated….the band is on fire!!
General admissions tickets are $20 in advance at oldnationalcentre.com, or $22 day of show.