of Montreal
with Ruby the Rabbitfoot
Innocence Reaches begins with a query. How do you identify? coos a robotic voice over a strikingly modern mix of bright synthpop and surging rave. The question too feels very of its timeas outdated ideas about gender and attraction are being overturnedbut its also a fair ask whenever of Montreal debuts an album.The projects 14th LP follows two full decades of mercurial creative mania: swallowing up 60s psych-pop, Prince-ly funk, and glammy prog in turn; morphing freely between full-band affair and cloistered confessional booth; comprising lyrics both painfully personal and absurdly fantastical; and recently drawing site-specific inspiration from culture capitals like San Francisco or New York City. The thread that runs through it all is Athens, GAs Kevin Barnes, and Innocence Reaches finds him at his most light-hearted in years, working a Parisian stint, Top 40 sounds, and his newfound single status into the kaleidoscopic swirl. Even as he continues to sift the sonic and emotional detritus of his past, Barnes sums up his current mood in the openers title: lets relate.The most immediate surprise is the sound. Innocence Reaches is touched by contemporary electronica, indie pop, and EDM. For the first time in his career, Barnes tuned into now. Forever Ive been detached from current music, he says. I got into this bubble of only being in some other time period. I came up picking apart the Beach Boys, the Beatles, and symphonic pieces. But last year, I was hearing Jack , Chairlift, Arca, and others, thinking about low end and sound collage. It was an extra layer to geek out on.Paris helped with that. Barnes lived in a friends studio for two weeks. It was in an apartment complex and, as he prefers to work at night, he couldnt thrash loud instruments for fear of noise complaints from the neighbors. But the in-house arsenal of vintage synthesizers and drum machines was fair gamecheck the skittering beats of a sport and a pastime and thick hum of chap pilot.By day, Barnes wandered Pre Lachaise Cemetery, sat at cafs and wrote poems, read Jeans Ganet and Cocteau, or eavesdropped on conversations he couldnt translate. Being in that place where no one looks at me twice and I cant even understand the language was like entering a parallel universe, recalls Barnes. It was cathartic and inspiring to amputate myself from my normal life and feel like an individual outside of all the baggage and memories.Enjoying anonymity, he sorted through the inner wreckage left by his divorce two years prior, and took stock of the briefer relationships since. my fair lady bids adieu to a familiar figure over sax-streaked disco-funk, but we soon meet Sarah from Detroit on darkwave dream ambassador bridge, and Gabrielle the Athenian Beach Goth amid the trappy space-glitch of trashed Exes. In les chants de maldoror, our hero cooly declares, We only act nicely when were ruining hotel beds/I greeted you in a hundred doorways. Innocence Reaches continues of Montreals recent autobiographical streak, which finds Barnes fetishizing reality, as he puts it.But hes concerned with a broader reality as well. its different for girls is an exploration of the dilemme fminin. Combining Daft Punks aptitude for groove with LCD Soundsystems witan endlessly quotable track that has Barnes outlining the dangers inherent in binary gendering: Its different for girls,from when they are children theyre de-personalized, aggressively objectified... and later Barnes sings Its different for girls, they are mercurial creatures, not a masculine dissonance or sexual currency. The song is less feminine anthem and more pop exegesis of societal codes. though some women are demons all of them are God. Indeed.Apropos, Innocence Reaches cover design was an attempt by a new first-time fatherKevins brother Davidto express his wonderment for the female anatomy. And the aforementioned lets relate was indeed inspired by trans issues, a subject dear to Barnes heart. I have a history of gender-bending in performances, but thats also always been a part of my identity as a human, he says. Im thankful to have an outlet for that, to express that and not get chased out of town or beat up. I think were moving in the right direction now. The song is a call to find common ground in simply being human: I like that you like you/I think that youre great/I want to relate, he sings cheerily.Innocence Reaches features darker moments to be sureisolation, anger, indifference, and the feeling that, like a Truffaut film, madness lurks just outside the framebut as Barnes explains, Epiphany comes from breakdown. If you can stay open and vulnerable, the nebulous becomes transparent. Thats one of the magical aspects of writing from personal life.Sometimes youve gotta intentionally court a little chaos in order to make one of the best, weirdest, brightest, catchiest, and most inventive albums in your already incredible catalog.
at College Street Music Hall
238 College Street
New Haven, United States
Orignal From: of Montreal
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