In the past 10 years, Athens, Georgia’s Of Montreal released seven albums, two of them absolute pop gems (2007’s
Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?; 2010’s
False Priest). But fans tend to forget that before Kevin Barnes found his foothold as the godfather of psychedelic indie-rock, Of Montreal were a spectacularly terrible twee-pop band.
Paralytic Stalks has the band reverting back to its old self. Barnes has been the sole songwriter in the group for years and that has never been a bad thing, but with
Stalks it seems like he has come completely unhinged from reality. Indulging overzealous funk tracks with layers of synthesizers and instrumentation, Barnes’ pop songwriting is so oversaturated it’s hard to tell where one song ends and the other begins.