Museum Musica

USA, 2007, psychedelic pop / indie pop / neo-psychedelia

of Montreal – Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?: Barnes is talented, there’s no doubt about that. Even a talented dude sometimes needs a muse to excel beyond even his own abilities, and that’s just what he does on this album. Barnes has a lot of decent albums, but nothing that really grabs me the way this and The Sunlandic Twins do. Nina is certainly the best thing that ever happened to him and his creative spark. Too bad things didn’t work out between them, but it’s not surprising considering what an insufferable narcissist Barnes is. There are some brutal cut-downs on this album, but it’s all so goooood. There’s so much hubris on display here that it would be sickening if it weren’t wrapped up so perfectly in a pop candy wrapper and delivered so convincingly by Georgie Fruit. More things than gender are bent on this record.