Top 10 Records of 2007 - Number Two
When I first put pen to paper and listed my top 10 records of 2007, this record was in the bottom half of the list. But over the past couple weeks, as I have been listening almost exclusively to my top 10 list, I’ve moved this up, and up, and up. The reason is simple. Hissing Fauna is the most complete record on the list. It is a record that works best listened start to finish. Sure there are standout tracks, like Suffer For Fashion, She’s A Rejector, Faberge, Heimdalsgate, and several more. But when I listen to any of the tracks solo, I expect and want to hear the next track at the end of the song. That’s a record.
For those who don’t know, Of Montreal is based in Athens Georgia and is the handiwork of a talented musician named Kevin Barnes. He’s the front man for the band and he did all of the songwriting on this record. Maybe that’s why it flows so well from start to finish.
The music is neo-psychedelic pop. Think Beach Boys meet Sgt Pepper with a bit of George Clinton and techo thrown in for good measure.
Here’s one of my favorite tracks, called A Sentence Of Sorts In Kongsvinger
A Sentence Of Sorts In Kongsvinger – Of Montreal – Hissing Fauna Are You The Destroyer
Comments (Archived):
This is my favorite record of the year, by far. I also saw them live twice, and sorely regret missing them a 3rd time. This, from top to bottom, is an extremely well-crafted record. I love every song on it. I do have to say that Kongsvinger is probably my favorite song as well- the “solar fever” part is just to die for. Kevin Barnes sure can craft a hook.They also have an immensely deep catalog (I think this is their 7th album). I’d recommend Satanic Panic in the Attic and The Sunlandic Twins. Both are excellent, and stylistically more similar to this record than their first 3 or 4 (which are also good, but more off-the-wall psychedelic storybook pop). That’s probably why they are my #1 most listened to band on my Last.fm page.
I listened to satanic panic and sundlantic a lot this year as well. I am not familiar with their earlier materialFred
It’s kinda odd, this album started off around #3 on my list when I did a draft back in Nov, then slowly but surely moved down to #14 in the final list, I think this was only because I am biased towards more recently listened to music to a point, but you hit the nail on the head when you said it was a great ‘complete’ album. Certainly one that gets a full listen every time I give it a spin. Always good to see Orange Twin bands get on people’s lists.