REVIEW :::: OF MONTREAL - ALDHIL'S ARBORETUM

Current mood: bouncy
Category: Music

The other week I was hanging around Lauren Laverne (the former frontwoman of Kenicke, now UKTV and XFM radio presenter) like a bad smell…

I'm not a stalker and it's nothing sexual, or maybe,..,why would I mention it if -?.., shit, no..

No, no, no! definitely not! It's just that I've seen her on quite a few occasions at the Culture Show recordings and in such a scenario you feel you have some degree of familiarity with a person because you recognise them. It's like someone who gets the same bus as you everyday, your eyes say Hello and I know you and What the fuck are you looking at? But you've never spoken. There is of course no reason to speak unless one has something to say, but the thing is you're familiar, but you're not actually familiar at all, you just recognise the face. In this case, she presents and I sit in the background looking stupid. I'm a piece of furniture and she's the main event..it's weird and wholly wrong…

Anyway, I'd come to the decision that I should say hello or something just for the hell of it. So there I was ear wigging on her conversation, trying to find something of great and groundbreaking importance to say and Lauren was talking about how great a band Of Montreal were, and I thought fuck me I've heard of that band, but I have no idea how or who or why or what they sound like…

Well all this is irrelevant as the first half of my reviews often are, but I'll now get onto the meat of the thing, and that is I've since listened to Of Montreals 2002 LP Adhils Arboretum and found it to be quite fantastic…

The first thing that's excellent is that Of Montreal sound like The Beatles, but are nothing like The Beatles. Yes boss, I never thought I'd be promoting a band that sound like The Beatles, but what Of Montreal have done that a bunch of monkeys like Oasis haven't done is to develop and improve on that Beatles blueprint. The harmonies are similar, the popness is similar, but everything else is different: the sounds, the lyrics, the look, the feel…

The second great thing with Of M is the lyrics. Basically, the lyrics are the best I've heard since I got to grips with Hot Chip.

For example, from Nothings Happening: "Nothing. We're doing nothing, sitting and wondering why nothings happening" (Repeat in some combination for the rest of the song) Perfect.

Or how about this from Isn't it nice: "One thing I've learned is to be cautious of the deer - they don't care if they die. It's a long and winding road to our house, so, if you come to see us take it slow, take it slow." Fantastic

Better than this, Of Montreal don't feel the need to tap the very dry well of being a fucked up Rock N Roll junkie/alcoholic to sell records. They just write simple songs about day-to-day life, let the music do any extra talking that might be required and keep their boozing and drugs to themselves...

So how come this band isn't huge?

http://www.myspace.com/ofmontreal