Of Montreal

Georgie Fruit is a middle-aged, sexually ambiguous, black, ex-con, former funk band front man—and a figment of the imagination of 34-year-old married father Kevin Barnes. Now, 11 years into the recording career of second-era Elephant 6 group Of Montreal, Barnes is still trying to find the right way to get out whatever the fuck is inside his head. But for anyone who’s been following the Kevin Barnes genre-bending, gender-bending bender, “Skeletal Lamping” will feel just about right, if a little bit disappointing.

The follow up to last year’s critically acclaimed “Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?” sees the reintroduction of alter-ego Georgie Fruit (see: Aladdin Sane), but sheds some of that album’s tight electronic instrumentals and most of its sense of structure in favor of a much looser approach and a more funk-driven sound. And while Of Montreal have always been theatrical and a bit all over the place, “Skeletal Lamping” is disjointed to the point where even the idea of dividing it into its 15 distinct tracks seems kind of pointless. Within almost every track there are at least two distinct movements, and Barnes unpacks a lot of music in those 15 songs. It’s definitely not sound vomit, but with the exception of several moments of brilliant clarity, most of the album is just a tad too hectic to really serve as anything more than background music.

The record kicks off on a great note—despite its cheesy autoharp intro, “Nonpareil of Favor” is a big track. Framed on top of some beautifully repetitive, pounding Sonic Youth fuzz, Barnes begins the album-long musings about his cracking and complicated relationships.

How can the guy who wrote the music for the Outback Steakhouse commercial have relationship problems? On the rest of the album, Barnes eschews the breakup described in “Hissing Fauna” and spends most of his time describing, in hilarious detail, his various sexual desires and exploits. “We can do it softcore if you want,” he says; he wants to “make you come 200 times a day” and “ejaculate until it’s no longer fun.” Unfortunately, though, most of these lyrics come from songs (“For Our Elegant Caste,” “Gallery Piece,” and “Wicked Wisdom”) which are funky, but—with the exception of generally strong bass lines—jump around far too much to be enjoyable.

Much of the rest of the album is similarly caught up in a campy disco-funk mess, but there are some standouts. “Touched Something’s Hollow,” while dangerously close to chord-for-chord replication of “Imagine” (and the intro to “Don’t Look Back in Anger”), is a short but satisfying piano-driven break from the mayhem, and transitions nicely into the horn-dominated “An Eluardian Instance.” “Death Is Not a Parallel Move” has a nice pastoral acoustic section which also flows coolly into following track, “Beware Our Nubile Miscreants,” this time through a thick orchestral flourish. But as should be expected at this point in the album, the tone shifts on a dime, turning from Sufjan Stevens to Mika without ever really sinking in.

By far the highlight of the album comes when the funk slows down to Marvin Gaye speed on “St. Exquisite’s Confessions.” With a beat that would make for some good low-rider music and vocals that warp and disintegrate under the weight of some cool effects, it’s easy to understand why Barnes has taken to performing this song live perched upon a white horse, wearing gold shorts, covered in red glitter body paint, and hanging from a noose.

Yeah, their live shows are a bit extravagant, but that seems to be the point, a continuation of their over-the-top music. And after turning Roseland Ballroom into a big sexually ambiguous mosh pit just over a week ago and turning out a pretty respectable cover of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” accompanied by MGMT’s Andrew Van Wyngarden (with whom Barnes is now collaborating on a side project), Of Montreal look to do the same to the Orpheum on Oct. 30. But while it will probably overwhelm, “Skeletal Lamping” definitely doesn’t astound. The collage of music that spans its hour length was put together to shake up listeners, but will likely end up simply throwing them off.