by
Of Montreal
- Record Label: Polyvinyl
- Release Date: Jan 23, 2007
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
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It's a challenging yet ultimately rewarding album -- and one that definitely requires some thoughtful attention on the part of the listener.
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Alternative PressWith this completely progressive and mature effort, it's clear that Barnes is one of indie rock's most gifted songwriters. [Feb 2007, p.115]
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Much of Hissing Fauna… dances in the face of its depressing subject matter.
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Hissing Fauna might be Barnes’ finest work yet, an opus built entirely of sugar.
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The album sounds amazing.
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If there is one thing in this world that can elevate even the weakest of lyrics from the trough of personal diary hell, it’s a catchy melody. Thankfully this record overflows with them.
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Although non-fans will likely continue to dismiss the band as over-the-top pop marauders, Hissing Fauna proves that there’s plenty of depth to their delirium.
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Entertainment WeeklyThe band's playful musicality is undeniable. [26 Jan 2007, p.71]
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If last year's sublime Sunlandic Twins was Kevin Barnes' ode to "Oslo in the Summertime," Hissing Fauna recalls his Winter of Discontent.
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It's by far his most personal album, but "Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?" keeps the self-absorption to a minimum, in favor of vivid descriptions and up-tempo music that's catchy and engaging regardless of whether you're invested in the difficult back story.
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It's this mix of little quirks and big beats that makes "Hissing Fauna" so much fun. But it's the way Barnes pushes himself, both to tell the truth and to try new things, that lends these songs a heavier, more compelling edge than most contemporary baroque-pop.
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If Of Montreal were previously a bit on the superficial side with their beatific pop, Hissing Fauna adds a welcome additional ingredient: a sense of gravity.
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MagnetThe emotional gravitas only lends heft to the group's exhilarating, ever-present sugar high. [#74, p.104]
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MojoHis gifts remain undiminished. [Mar 2007, p.99]
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This Athens, Georgia collective have blossomed from winsome indie-pop virgins to frocked-up future pop stars, beaming their febrile college rock through a kaleidoscope of sleazy funk, electronica jitters, and 'Fear Of Music'-style Talking Heads ethno-beat.
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The lack of engaging realism has always been one of the major problems for Of Montreal and the new material goes a long way towards solving it.
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Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? is probably the most fun one can reasonably have while wrestling with somebody else’s demons.
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An astonishingly good late-period record from Of Montreal that's as uncomfortably savage in its depiction of breakup psychology as it is relentlessly catchy.
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The effect of the new bleak mood lurking beneath the glimmering pop is to pare away the occasional over-cutesiness that has marred Of Montreal's work in the past and enhance the freaky psychedelic sublime of Barne's best moments.
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This is a cohesive, serious album. It is distressing, depressed, isolated, alienating, and probably the best Of Montreal album to date.
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Barnes's most personal and emotional album to date.
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Q MagazineAn extraordinary record. [Mar 2007, p.115]
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An album of relatively accessible pop music that pulses with the pain of a life in pieces.
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SpinHissing Fauna might be an album of ego trips, but at least Barnes is on the good stuff. [Feb 2007, p.85]
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Hissing Fauna is severely front-loaded, not necessarily because the closing songs are duds, but more because the album’s first half is nearly flawless.
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It's all darkly beautiful, because Barnes continues to emote more through the music than through his words.
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For the most part an exercise in Prince-like electro-funk, full of squelchy keyboard fuzz and chicken-scratch guitar noise and absurdly complicated falsetto harmonies.
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Manic pop and depressive revelations have rarely been so closely bonded. [22 Jan 2007]
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What makes these songs so positively delicious, in the same way that going on a bender can be a welcome alternative to crying into a pillow, is that Barnes realizes how seductive misery can be.
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UncutAt best, Hissing Fauna... posits its creator as the missing link between Hot Chip and Morrissey. [Mar 2007, p.88]
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UrbA wonderfully dance-ridden companion ot the intelli-disco carved out on 2005's The Sunlandic Twins. [Jan/Feb 2006, p.81]
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Fauna's first half is cosmic pop turmoil of the highest degree, as only a master songwriter could create.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 146 out of 164
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Mixed: 9 out of 164
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Negative: 9 out of 164
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ZonhinFeb 2, 2008
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DavidC.May 31, 2009
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TimLMay 28, 2008