All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Drowned In Sound

Some people are going to think this is a masterpiece, the equal of "Hissing Fauna." Others will call it a self indulgent mess that pushes indie-rock somewhere it really wasn't meant to go. Personally, I think both those sound about right.

Read Full Review >

musicOMH.com

Skeletal Lamping flicks across channels like a man with an itchy trigger finger who trigger finger is actually itchy, but it excels in making a brilliant kind of sense.

Read Full Review >

Urb

Switching, flexible, rug burn reverberation. Of Montreal’s pretentious compound syllables titillate mind and body, catcalling strangers walking down the street you imagine naked, whose vocabulary is as ripped as the holes in their shirts.

Read Full Review >

Blender

Skeletal Lamping is a new high for this long-running yet just-peaking band.

Read Full Review >

Paste Magazine

Amid its admirably complex compositional compressions, Skeletal Lamping feels like a triple-LP sprawler, despite clocking in at less than an hour. For those who have the patience to hang with Barnes and his freak-outs, it could be a masterpiece.

Read Full Review >

Prefix Magazine

"Epic” is the only way to describe the balance of Skeletal Lamping--Barnes isn’t afraid to throw everything on tape.

Read Full Review >

Delusions of Adequacy

Barnes is literally all over the place and his cryptic storytelling makes for an eccentric album. And although each song may shift styles five or six times, as a whole, it’s a tightly constructed and smartly shaped listen.

Read Full Review >

Under The Radar

There's so much hot action on Skeletal Lamping that it's overwhelming at times. But, in the harsh light of the morning after, you'll be glad you took it hime. [Fall 2008, p.77]

Billboard

Barnes isn't so much indulgent as he is overly ambitious and seemingly out of his mind, making Skeletal Lamping as wonderfully brilliant as it is weird.

Read Full Review >

Slant Magazine

Taken in isolation, the individual movements in these songs and the different voices of the narrators are never less than engaging.

Read Full Review >

cokemachineglow

It is exactly the record you’d expect Kevin Barnes to make right now: briefly, the concept record as heart failure. Seriously. Never before has engaging in serious cardiomyopathic trade been this remote, or satisfying.

Read Full Review >

Dot Music

There is much to enjoy on this consistently rewarding album; brazen, bonkers and really quite brilliant.

Read Full Review >

Uncut

Skeletal Lamping follows the latter path, fleshing out the polymorphous persona of Georgie Fruit via brilliantly executed attention-deficit funk. [Dec 2008, p.105]

Alternative Press

Skeletal Laming furthers the notion that Kevin Barnes is, in fact, the Prince of our generation. [Dec 2008, p.138]

Magnet

The album’s sound is a more intricate remix of Fauna’s futurama, another hyperbaric disco chamber filled with technoodling beats backing pop operettas, while the lyrics sometimes do that magnum opus one better.

Read Full Review >

Entertainment Weekly

Barnes plays virtually every instrument. It's impossible not to be impressed by such virtuosic preening. Ultimately, though, only one artist in the world can get away with this shtick for an entire hour-long album.

Read Full Review >

The Onion (A.V. Club)

Most songs start with a barrage of mini movements, find aural stasis, then give in to stylistic onslaught. It's physically tiring at times, but immaculately arranged. That's less true of Barnes' lyrics. While his words are lysergically colorful and often poetic, any greater meaning is dissolved in an acid bath of too much information.

Read Full Review >

Rolling Stone

A soulful romp through psychedelic melodies and sprawling noise-scapes, Skeletal is also a whimsical, Girl Talk-style pastiche, with 15 tracks that consist of a multitude of song fragments.

Read Full Review >

Dusted Magazine

Lamping has some catchy songs and some interesting lyrics, but feels too inconsequential, too easily sloughed off.

Read Full Review >

Los Angeles Times

There are 1,000 ideas in 15 songs, and all of them are appealing. But most get short shrift in this manic adventure that bogs down too many songs with exhaustive tonal changes and an overreliance on Barnes’ layered falsetto vocals.

Read Full Review >

The Phoenix

This feast isn’t without a good deal of filler.

Read Full Review >

No Ripcord

Skeletal Lamping is the brain dump of a troubled psyche, and you shouldn’t feel too bad if you ultimately don’t get it. I don’t think you’re supposed to.

Read Full Review >

The Guardian

Picking through the skewed rhythms and electronic tics takes patience, but it is occasionally rewarded with poppy pleasures.

Read Full Review >

cokemachineglow

Given that the record is so nominally personal and probing, it’s telling that there is not one moment of transcendence, or relief, or acceptance, or melody, or substance.

Read Full Review >

Tiny Mix Tapes

Skeletal Lamping is by no means a bad album; rather, after such an organic and fully realized career milestone as Hissing Fauna, the difficulty of finding a new direction is a creatively arduous one, and of Montreal’s experimentation here is notable overall.

Read Full Review >

Hartford Courant

Barnes and company's ninth studio album isn't as catchy or cohesive as the past few, hitting upon sublime moments--like when he quietly asks "Why I am so damaged?"--that are frustratingly few and far between.

Read Full Review >

PopMatters

Following a dramatic statement of purpose like Hissing Fauna, it shouldn’t be too surprising that listening to Skeletal Lamping is a bit of a let-down, but, when removed of comparisons and expectations, it’s still a nonsensical dancefloor freakfest that only Kevin Barnes could pull off--and, really, what more could you ask of Kevin Barnes?

Read Full Review >

Observer Music Monthly

Barnes pushes their ninth album to sometimes unlistenable extremes and although it has its moments--'Touched Something's Hollow' is a beauty--the pleasures to be gained from this sexual experiment are few.

Read Full Review >

Pitchfork

Ultimately Skeletal Lamping registers as a misstep, but not without loads of silver lining.

Read Full Review >

All Music Guide

This is a love-it-or-lump-it album, a polarizing effort that--depending on personal preference--is either irresistibly attractive or laughably, overzealously pretentious.

Read Full Review >

Q Magazine

"Lamping" is a hunting term for flooding a forest with light then opening fire on the panicking prey, and the ninth album by these Athens, Georgia oddballs is similarly scattershot. [Dec 2008, p.132]

Sputnikmusic

Skeletal Lamping lacks a satisfactory, uh, idea. None are progressed, thoroughly provoked, just simply thrown out the speakers in hopes that we are transfixed by its oh-so literal translation of Barnes’ Georgie Fruit act.

Read Full Review >

Under The Radar

The whole thing almost makes you wonder if Kevin Barnes isn't fucking around just to see what he can get away with, as he spends the better part of the record playing against his own strengths and nearly everything the listener has come to expect. [Fall 2008, p.77]

What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this album is 8.6 (out of 10) based on 41 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Josh G gave it a10:
I felt slightly let down at first, kinda like it lacked some soul.. after i started wrapping my head around it I just fell more and more in love. thank god for Kevin. I just saw it performed in concert last night. Too bad the Riviera is a hellhole.

Alex gave it an8:
At first, I was somewhat turned off by this album. After a few listens the songs started catching on and now I love the album. It is definitely a grower.

Softcor E gave it a10:
Agree that it takes a few listens before it dawns just how good this is, but man it's the most fun you'll have coming to terms with an album. I find myself only wanting to listen to of Montreal these days. This just takes off where Hissing Fauna left us last year, even before HFAYTD, The Sunlandic Twins was 75% genius too. He keeps pushing his ideas of song progression further and further. I'm calling it a groundbreaker in the same mould as Rubber Soul, Pet Sounds, Ziggy Stardust, Sign of the Times, Giant Steps, Radiator and Smile. All the great albums sound all over the place, challenging, even confusing. Only after some patience coupled with the love of music that pushes the envelope, do they reveal their undeniable greatness.

Drew gave it a10:
Firstly, I love of Montreal. They are one of my favorite bands. Everything after Satanic Panic is magnificently beautiful. Now, this is definitely a departure and not an easy listen. I hated this album on first listen. Third and fourth listens revealed this as one of the most incredible albums I've ever experienced. The lyrics are very sexual and nothing is held back. It scares me how well this album flows together. I find myself wanting to hear one song, then queuing up the rest of the album, it has that kind of flow. Definite masterpiece. Definitely in the hat for album of the year. Wins my vote hands down!

bitch ing gave it a1:
Terrible, one of the worst albums of the year.

Robert S. gave it a10:
Greatest. Album. Quite possibly ever made.

Dave S. gave it a10:
If you can get through the first listen, it only gets more rewarding. By the 3rd..4th..it just might be the most fun you'll have with music this year. A true achievement. It's Kevin Barnes, letting it all hang out.

Music

Upcoming &Recent Releases

Skeletal Lamping

Album Info

Summary

What The Critics Said

What Our Users Said

Upcoming &
Recent Releases