Get Your Fix: Album Reviews by the CoolJunkie Staff

October 8, 2008 5:16 PM
by The CoolJunkie Staff

Of Montreal - Skeletal Lamping
by: Marcos Colón

If you pick up the latest copy of Rolling Stone, inside you’ll find an article on Of Montreal’s frontman Kevin Barnes, the gender bending, cross-dressing animated vocalist. If you put David Bowie (Ziggy Stardust era), Prince and a dash of Freddy Mercury into a giant blender, press mix, you’d get something along the lines of Barnes. Funny how a band as unique and aesthetically colorful as Of Montreal hail from Athens, Georgia. Although the music scene there is prominent, you still wouldn’t expect these guys to come out of there.

With their latest release, Skeletal Lamping, the band seems to encompass a bit more funk that adds to the overall groove of the album. The opening track on the album, Nonpariel of Favor, serves as a perfect example to the listener on what they’re getting themselves into and proves that Of Montreal can create some loud music that just makes sense. This could be because of the instrument arrangements and the variety of sounds they layer on each track. Skeletal Lamping can be almost be described as a mash-up of new tracks from the band, as the 15 songs on the album consist of various fragments within.

The band, Barnes particularly, should have a field day going on the road for this album. Definitely be prepared for Georgie Fruit, Barnes’ black transsexual stage persona, to come out in full force. Skeletal Lamping is a good buy, but check out some previous work before you get into this one. When it comes to this album, Barnes can only describe it as his, “attempt to bring all of my puzzling, contradicting, disturbing, humorous…fantasies, ruminations and observations to the surface.” I guess we’ve all been warned.

Click here to hear more from Of Montreal.

Rachel Yamagata - Elephants... Teeth Sinking Into Heart
by: Damon Dewitt

Moments before the release date, CoolJunkie critics got their hands on Rachael Yamagata’s second attempt as a solo artist. Four years after her first solo effort Happenstance Yamagata is back under Warner Bros. Records bringing forth (A Record in Two Parts) Elephants… Teeth Sinking into the Heart.

The album, as the title suggests, is a two-part performance. Not intentionally setting out to make a two-part album, Rachel just followed her songs’ lyrical lead and built them into the story she was trying to tell. Elephants, which is devoted to tracks 1-9, is dark and vulnerable. The second half Teeth Sinking into the Heart, which includes the final five tracks on the record, are gritty and defiant. Put the two together and you get a timeline of emotions that run through the complications of relationships and the accompanying fallout.

From sad to cynical, the music starts off more soothing and reaching toward resonance as Rachael takes you on a journey. A journey that flows quite well, possibly due to orchestral transitions between songs, especially on the first half of the album, or possibly the lengthy songs themselves, which reach the eight and nine minute mark on Sunday Afternoon and Horizion. Horizon serves as the switch between Elephants and flows effortlessly into the first track on Teeth Sinking into the Heart, Sidedish Friend a poppy song pointing out the perils of a part time lover. The total effort wraps up with Don’t which takes the tempo back down to the title track Elephants, a song which metaphorically introduces the songs to follow through animalistic events, as they would relate to relationships.

Getting plenty of exposure in between her first and second records, be sure to listen in for the husky alto voice of Rachel Yamagata popping up all over the place. If fans of the songstress were put under stress with the wait time that went along with Rachel’s second album they can expect some relief knowing that the energy was not wasted in the four year sabbatical spent in the solitude of Woodstock, NY. Elephants… Teeth Sinking into the Heart is a solid second effort.

Click here to hear more from Rachel Yamagata.

Seamus Haji - Big Love
by: Michael Maryanoff

It’s a shame that there aren’t many mix albums floating around that can be appreciated by ravers with dilated pupils, hipsters in skinny jeans and househeads. Big Love, mixed by Seamus Haji, almost pulls this off, but falls a bit short. The first disc starts off with some indie-dance fare from the likes of the Ting Tings and Martin Solveig, something that would feel right at home at a club packed full of people adorned with florescent clothes and Chuck Taylors. As it progresses, it slides slowly into a more housey fare dripping with pianos, such as EDX’s remix of Sebastian Ingrosso & Laidback Luke’s Chaa Cha. It also contains a very clever remix of Moby’s I Love to Move in Here from Seamus himself.

On the second disc Haji does an alright job of balancing the poppy and grandiose with the techy, odd, and eclectic. It has blatant hits like TV Rock’s Been a Long Time, but also has some groovy stuff such as Wahoo’s Make Em Shake It and The Tunnel. But most of the second disc consists of the standard big-room tunes.

Big Love shows a lot of promise from the onset and there are definitely some interesting tracks interspersed throughout, but the album as whole is a bit on the bland side. If you aren’t into dance music rife with piano and vocals, you might want to steer clear of this one.

Click here to hear more from Seamus Haji.