OF MONTREAL - Hissing Fauna Are You The Destroyer Review

In an era when iTunes is trying its mightiest to kill off retail at $.99 a song and scattershot mainstream releases continue to undermine the viability of the album format as a means for artistic statements, it’s important to remember that such statements still can -- and are -- being made. And successfully so, in commercial and artistic senses....full text "I spent the winter on the verge of a total nervous breakdown while living in Norway." It sounds like the opening line of some depressing piece of gothic literature.

It is, in fact, the opening line of one tune on Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?, the latest album from Athens, Ga., popsters Of Montreal. And in the hands of the one and only Kevin Barnes -- Of Montreal's main man and driving force -- it's nothing short of a richly melodic dance-pop hook. Even better: It's par for the course here....full text If 2005’s The Sunlandic Twins was Of Montreal’s Kid A (and it’s not quite, but bear with me), then 2007’s Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? is their Amnesiac: more of the same, but deeper, darker, and slightly weirder. And like its Radiohead counterparts, the successor pales in comparison…but only slightly....full text