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Mar 5, 2015The result is an audacious delight, delivering aural odysseys that slither in and out of the territory of heavy-lidded dance-club bangers, junkie-punk ragers, symphonic Baroque-pop gems, plaintive guitar-rockers and myriad lessons from the Marc Bolan school of glam-rock depravity.
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Mar 2, 2015The combination of the raw, tempestuous styles, Barnes' own capricious musical tendencies, and the regrettable subject matter of Aureate Gloom has Of Montreal at its rockiest and most intense.
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Feb 27, 2015Every song seems to journey through a multitude of genres and eras while remaining coherent.
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Feb 27, 2015Aureate Gloom is the point where grief becomes a search for light in creation, adventure and musical experimentation, making even Barnes' more experimental sonic forays sound urgent.
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Feb 27, 2015Perhaps the key to deep listening with of Montreal is to take each detour, each genre shift and noodly instrumental segment, by its own terms. As a series of these moments, Aureate Gloom is a complex and worthy addition to of Montreal's impactful discography.
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Mar 4, 2015Barnes has had a habit of throwing dozens of these complex noises and genres my way within the context of a single song. The newest, Aureate Gloom, has collected these idiosyncrasies in the best way since Fauna's atom bomb performances.
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Mar 4, 2015Ultimately the music becomes another mask, another thing Barnes is trying to untangle, in a great chapter in the lengthy, wonderfully ornate Of Montreal compendium.
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Mar 4, 2015The album is a difficult listen because it is immeasurably honest, because it exposes a group who, after 13 releases in almost 20 years, sounds less seasoned than flat-out exhausted.
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UncutFeb 25, 2015Bursting with good ideas, albeit often self-defeating in its kaleidoscopic complexity, much of Aureate Gloom sounds like the great psychedelic retro-glam rock opera that Graham Coxon might one day compose. [Apr 2015, p.81]
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Mar 3, 2015Loud, fickle, and impolite, Aureate Gloom is yet another entry into the evolution of one man’s soul made manifest through music.
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MojoMar 19, 2015It's quite a departure from their trademark psychedelia. [Apr 2015, p.98]
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Mar 6, 2015Aureate Gloom continues in this vein but, while Sylvianbriar was Barnes’ most mellow offering yet, this album is more aggressive and troubled.
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Mar 5, 2015Too bad clunky lyrics hold things back at times.
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Mar 3, 2015Sometimes his hydrant flow of ideas reveals a lack of good ones (see the proggy slog "Monolithic Egress"). But when Barnes figures out how to focus his brain dumps, dude gets more with less.
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Q MagazineFeb 25, 2015The best songs have some serious bite. [Apr 2015, p.108]
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Feb 25, 2015Aureate Gloom stretches spontaneity to the point of feeling rushed. None of these songs are among Barnes’ best.
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Feb 25, 2015If you’re a Barnes completist, it’s totally worth a listen. For everyone else, it’s hardly essential.
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MagnetMar 12, 2015The back half gets slower, darker and weirder--integral ingredients all. But there isn't one track here that stands out from the rest. [No. 118, p.59]
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Mar 5, 2015Aureate Gloom makes for a confused, scary, frustrating wallow into the psyche of a man I’m starting to fear getting to know any better.
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Mar 3, 2015Aureate Gloom distinguishes itself in Barnes’ catalog as its own inexplicable set of contradictions: a record rendered inert and sabotaged by its own ambitions.
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Mar 4, 2015Most songs here seem to contain the DNA of a dozen other tracks, with Barns stitching them together Frankenstein-style. The results are occasionally brilliant, often frustrating, but always confounding.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 16 out of 19
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Mixed: 2 out of 19
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Negative: 1 out of 19
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Mar 3, 2015
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Mar 7, 2015