Diving into an Of Montreal album is like visiting an aquarium, it’s mesmerizing, colorful, and a little unnatural. Kevin Barnes has made a career out of giving pop music a facelift, implementing seemingly incoherent yet thought-provoking song structures to the genre and adding their own brand of twist and turns. They continue their domination of left-field pop music on their latest release, Freewave Lucifer F>ck F^ck F<ck, a 7-track expedition that has the Georgia-breed artist experimenting with dark tones and new textures.
You’re immediately drawn into this album by way of the lead single and intro, “Marijuana is a Working Women”, a track that experiences multiple personality changes in its five-minute run-time. The electronic textures can be overwhelming for a casual listener, but fans of the avant-garde will appreciate the many tempo switch-ups along with Barnes’ approach to vocal arrangements.
It’s rare that a song on this album keeps a steady tempo, but this allows Barnes to flex his hauntingly beautiful falsetto and experiment with textures. Freewave Lucifer has Barnes allowing the instrumentals to do most of the talking, his elastic voice melts over powerful synth chords and whimpering guitar strumming, giving songs like “hmmm” unique harmonies and otherworldly melodies.
Barnes is an incredible songwriter so it is a crime of some sort that his lyrics seem hidden on this latest release. It might take a listen or two to fully grasp the concept of these songs but once you unlock the poetry hidden within his dance-centric beats, unforeseen darkness rears its head. Barnes grapples with mortality and complex topics and these tropes are more prominent than ever in“Nightswitch”. One lyric from this track sums it up nicely, Barnes sings “There is no human pain in my voice it’s something else’s”, this line gives the listener a sense that this dark cloud hanging over our hero’s head confuses even the writer. A faceless sense of grief that we first heard on the last Of Montreal album, 2021’s I Feel Safe With You, Trash.
Freewave Lucifer F>ck F^ck F<ck addresses the full spectrum of human emotion, it has a loose feeling without straying too far away from Barnes’ initial vision. While it may take a couple of listens to fully grasp what Of Montreal is portraying on this album, the result is a scary yet gorgeous album filled with off-kilter instrumentals and soul-stirring songwriting that will leave you feeling bewildered and enticed.
