Of Montreal Trades Polite Beatles Worship for a Flashy Prince Fixation

He tried yoga, meditation, and psychiatry to cure his depression. Nothing worked. "It was like you're bleeding to death," Barnes recalls, "and someone hands you a Kleenex and says, 'Here, put this on.' "

So Barnes threw himself into his music, writing most of last year's Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?, a bizarre, brilliant set of whacked-out psychedelic synth-pop that explored his twisted psyche. And this month, the frontman and his crew—Bryan Poole, Dottie Alexander, Jamey Huggins, Davey Pierce, and Ahmed Gallab—return with Skeletal Lamping, which, while not as dark as its predecessor, is definitely crazier: a jaw-droppingly-great 15-song explosion that features burbling synth dirges, horn rave-ups, sweaty disco bangers, cacophonous noise-rock explosions, and party-starting, Prince-style funk.

Read More