CD of The Week

Kevin Barnes has been a one-man band for the last decade, drawing comparisons to Prince as much for his solitary methods as his otherworldly falsetto and his increasingly funk-driven sound. But he pulls back on that last bit for of Montreal's latest release, Paralytic Stalks. While some of the funk is still there, Barnes finds himself playing around with classical composition, and wrestles with another meltdown. It's said to be his most personal release yet, but it's also of Montreal's most fragmented and least accessible.

The album starts well enough with "Gelid Assault," a blast of vengeful psychedelia that suggests a solid departure from Barnes' signature synth-heavy sound. But "Spiteful Intervention" steers the album right back in that direction, although it's as close to hooky as the album can muster, especially when Barnes proclaims, "I made the one I love cry tonight/and it felt good/Still there must be a more elegant solution."

"We Will Commit Wolf Murder, " a piece of reverb-laden space funk that changes completely with less than two minutes remaining, is kind of a prelude to the rest of the album. None of the last four songs are under seven minutes long. That wouldn't be a problem is the songs were more focused. Instead, Barnes adopts his approach from Skeletal Lamping, cramming tons of ideas into one long suite. This works to heavily mixed results, although the penultimate track, "Exorcismic Breeding Knife" is especially a slog, a sprawling cacophony of orchestral elements and random noises with Barnes droning underneath much like Lou Reed on his unfortunate collaboration with Metallica.

The final track, "Authentic Pyrrhic Remission," is more enjoyable than "Exorcismic Breeding Knife," although that's really by default, as its last few minutes crawl to a close on a genuinely touching piano movement. But it's apparent long before then that this is Barnes at his most self-indulgent yet. Paralytic Stalks expands on the most maddening aspects of Barnes' work (think of it as Skeletal Lamping but longer and more disjointed) to a point where it's unclear whether even hardcore of Montreal fans will really embrace it. We'll find out when they play Union Transferon April 2nd.