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of MontrealParalytic Stalks62 Based on 14 reviews 2012 Ranking: #203 / 227
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REVIEWS
of Montreal’s newest album, Paralytic Stalks, is capital-A Ambitious, with its sprawling second half, dense sonics, and ominous opening inquiry
It’s a further refinement of his defiantly complex sound, which this time reconciles the naiveté of his ’60s psych-pop roots with his recent post-Prince sex jams.
Stalks is emotionally raw and (at least for Barnes) lyrically direct, full of brutal reflections on his turbulent, obsessive marriage.
An album as emotionally involved as this may just have saved Barnes from being dismissed as someone playing out his decline.
It’s too honest, too inventive, too eloquent and too affecting to be the descent into total self-parody one half fears might come from a new Of Montreal release.
Barnes holds nothing back, toying with dense string arrangements and microtonality in ways that’d make even the shiest of music theory geeks blush with delight.
The thoroughly unenjoyable Paralytic Stalks might be a sign that Barnes should take some time off and let the inspiration come to him.
It places itself in an awkward hinterland between progression and regression.
It’s more likely that Paralytic Stalks won’t win Kevin Barnes any new fans, and may actually drive away some of his longtime followers.
Paralytic Stalks is an album about flagellation.
DETAILS
RATINGS
| 90 | Tiny Mix Tapes [src ] |
| 83 | A.V. Club [src] |
| 80 | Under The Radar [src] |
| 72 | Beats Per Minute [src] |
| 72 | Paste [src] |
| 70 | AllMusic [src] |
| 70 | Consequence of Sound [src] |
| 70 | Drowned in Sound [src] |
| 60 | No Ripcord [src] |
| 46 | Pitchfork [src] |
| 45 | The 405 [src] |
| 40 | PopMatters [src] |
| 40 | Spin [src] |
| 0 | Coke Machine Glow [src] |
- Gelid Ascent
- Spiteful Intervention
- Dour Percentage
- We Will Commit Wolf Murder
- Malefic Dowery
- Ye, Renew the Plaintiff
- Wintered Debts
- Exorcismic Breeding Knife
- Authentic Pyrrhic Remission
