They were among the second wave of groups to emerge from The Elephant 6 Recording Company and the group has a style that is typical of many Elephant 6 bands due to their interest in combining musical experimentation with the basic tenets of pop i.e. catchy melodies and sing-along choruses. The band’s style has been influenced by conventional indie pop, psychedelic music, vaudeville and music hall on their earlier releases and by afrobeat, funk, krautrock and reggae on their recent releases.
The band’s style has been known to change between albums. At first, the band embraced a more simple, quirky, lo-fi indie pop sound, which occasionally bordered on twee pop. The band was created by Kevin Barnes and named after a failed romance with a woman from Montreal, though the story changes in various interviews. Barnes was the only member of the “group” prior to his relocation to Athens, Georgia. There, he met Derek Almstead, later of Circulatory System, M Coast, Elf Power etc., and Bryan Poole, who also performs as The Late B.P. Helium.
Together, they recorded their first album, Cherry Peel, as well as The Bird Who Continues to Eat the Rabbit’s Flower and The Bedside Drama: A Petite Tragedy.
A number of singles and a re-release of The Bird Who Continues to Eat the Rabbit’s Flower occurred before the release of the band’s third album, The Gay Parade in 1999. With contributions from several members of the Elephant Six collective at the time, it also featured artwork from Kevin’s brother David Barnes, who would continue to do artwork for future albums.
This album marked that the band had moved to a fuller sound, which is also found on its follow-up, Coquelicot Asleep in the Poppies: A Variety of Whimsical Verse. These two albums contain more narrative lyrics, as opposed to the rather personal lyrical matter of those preceding it, and often imitating the style of old 1950s radio plays.
After production on The Gay Parade began in 1998, Poole left the band to focus on his duties with Elf Power, another Elephant Six band from Athens. Barnes also recruited Jamey Huggins and Dottie Alexander, who had been performing together as Lightning Bug vs. Firefly, to play various instruments. Derek moved from drums to bass. The band was joined soon after by Marshmallow Coast’s Andy Gonzales.
Following the release of The Gay Parade, the band signed with Kindercore Records, who would release a number of singles and compilations. It wasn’t until 2001 that Coquelicot Asleep in the Poppies: A Variety of Whimsical Verse would be released as a new album with original material. The album again featured contributions from across the Elephant 6 spectrum.
In 2002, Aldhils Arboretum was released, with a slightly different sound than its predecessors, as the songs were more directly structured. This album marks the beginning of the change in of Montreal’s sound, with more danceable rhythms than ever before, especially on the album’s closer, “Death Dance Of The Omipapas and Sons For You”. A successful tour ensued, including of Montreal’s first trip to the UK, along with a tour-only EP.
Kindercore Records would fold shortly after the release of Arboretum, and of Montreal’s status was also threatened. Kevin got married, and Andy and Derek left the band. Barnes, being uncomfortable with the unrest, as well as some divisions within the band, took to writing and performing their 2004 album Satanic Panic in the Attic mostly by himself. Released by Polyvinyl Records, it became one of their more successful efforts to that point. The 2004 tour saw The Late B.P. Helium (Bryan Poole) rejoin the band, with some bass played by Kevin’s partner Nina Barnes. The album marked a shift to something more electronic with traditional structures, to be further advanced in later albums and new songs. In their most recent releases and concerts, the band has fully embraced a sort of techno-pop glam image, with little of their previous incarnations surfacing. This style is featured in singles such as Disconnect the Dots. The style would continue to evolve into 2005’s The Sunlandic Twins, which was even more a Barnes solo effort. Recorded in Athens, with the exception of one track recorded in Norway, it was a much more pronounced electronic album. The album became a success, mostly due to the singles “So Begins Our Alabee” and the MTV clip for “Wraith Pinned to the Mist (and Other Games)”.
The band released several collections of singles in early 2006. Barnes recorded most of the band’s 2007 release, Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?, by himself while living in Norway and Athens, Georgia. The switch to autobiographical themes of suicide, depression and isolation of the album was a direct product of his troubled personal life during that period.
of Montreal released Skeletal Lamping on October 21, 2008 followed by False Priest on September 14, 2010, Paralytic Stalks on February 7, 2012, and Lousy with Sylvianbriar on October 8, 2013. Aureate Gloom is scheduled for release by Polyvinyl Records on March 3, 2015.
Lyrically, their style has changed dramatically throughout the years. In the beginning, many songs were narratives of personal or humorous situations, such as “Tim, I Wish You Were Born A Girl”, from Cherry Peel. This style, however, changed with The Gay Parade, where many songs involve small narratives surrounding invented characters (in songs such as “Jacques Lamure”, “The Autobiographical Grandpa”, “Mimi Merlot” and “Rose Robert”). Others act as extracts from fictional conversations (“Advice From a Divorced Gentleman to His Bachelor Friend Considering Marriage” and “Good Morning Mr. Edminton” as examples). With Aldhils Arboretum came a slight return to the previous writing style, except following more poppy, classical lyrical structures (such as the use of choruses, which are generally absent in the Gay Parade/Coquelicot years). This style continued throughout Satanic Panic and The Sunlandic Twins to some extent. On the album Hissing Fauna: Are You The Destroyer? the lyrics are much more personal than previously used, with songs detailing emotions within the speaker.
Another unique quality of the band is the fusion of ostensibly gloomy lyrics with bouncy, upbeat melodies and hooks. On Aldhils Arboretum, for example, the lyrics for tracks like “Doing Nothing” and “Old People in the Cemetery” focus on apathy, loneliness or death while being contrasted with cheerful instrumentation. Another example of this tendency is shown in their choice of covers; for example, Yoko Ono’s “I Felt Like Smashing my Head Through a Clear Glass Window” from The Bird Who Continues to Eat the Rabbit’s Flower.
True to the style of most Elephant 6 recording artists, of Montreal’s members have been in a variety of side projects and other bands:
The band itself has performed as the backing band for Marshmallow Coast on record and on tour.
My First Keyboard was the pseudonym used by Dottie Alexander to release the song “The You I Created” on the Kindercore singles club. of Montreal acted as her backing band.
Eros' Entropic Tundra
of Montreal Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
While watching all my friends find their happy love
I don't understand why I should be without love
All I ever get is sad love
Always falling for the ones who feel nothing for me
Sometimes I think I should just forget about love
When I saw a young couple with a child
They were all holding hands and smiling
They seemed very nice
Seemed to have a nice life
All I ever get is sad love
Feeling incomplete and below being loved
I don't know why it has been so hard to find love
All I ever get is sad love
The unrequited kind is all I have procured
And it was nothing at all like what I've heard about love
Without love, life has no great reward
Leaving us damaged or feeling so bored
Devoid of memories, nothing to record
Wishing the one that we adore
Loved us more
All I ever get is sad love
I was walking with my parents through St. Peter's Park
When I saw a young couple with a child
They were all holding hands and smiling
They seemed very nice
Seemed to have a nice life
All I ever get is sad love
Always falling for the ones who feel nothing for me
Sometimes I think I should just forget about love
Sad love (Sad love, sad love, sad love)
The lyrics to of Montreal's song Eros' Entropic Tundra are about the struggle of finding love, particularly the kind that is reciprocated. The singer laments that they always seem to attract and fall for people who don't feel the same way, while their friends are finding happy and fulfilling relationships. The singer is surrounded by love and even sees a seemingly perfect couple and family in St. Peter's Park, but they are unable to attain the same happiness.
The lyrics express a sense of longing and disappointment, as the singer yearns for the same kind of undying love they hear about in songs and stories. The repetition of the phrase "All I ever get is sad love" emphasizes the frustration and sadness that comes with unrequited love. The final line about wishing that the person they adore loved them more encapsulates the feeling of helplessness and longing that the song conveys.
Overall, Eros' Entropic Tundra is a melancholic reflection on the difficulty of finding love and how it can leave one feeling incomplete and unfulfilled.
Line by Line Meaning
All I ever get is sad love
The only kind of love I've experienced is unfulfilling and leaves me feeling sad.
While watching all my friends find their happy love
As I see my friends finding true love and being happy, I feel left out and wonder why it's so difficult for me.
I don't understand why I should be without love
I can't grasp why I haven't been able to find love when others have.
Always falling for the ones who feel nothing for me
I have a habit of being attracted to people who don't reciprocate my feelings.
Sometimes I think I should just forget about love
At times, I contemplate giving up on finding love altogether.
They were all holding hands and smiling
As my parents and I walked through St. Peter's Park, I saw a family who seemed to be living a happy life full of love.
Seemed to have a nice life
From what I observed, it appeared that the family was content and enjoying their time together.
Feeling incomplete and below being loved
My lack of love in my life leaves me feeling inadequate and undeserving of being loved.
And it was nothing at all like what I've heard about love
The unrequited love I've experienced has not lived up to the romanticized ideal of love I've heard about.
Without love, life has no great reward
The absence of love in our lives can leave us feeling unfulfilled and without a significant source of happiness.
Leaving us damaged or feeling so bored
The lack of love in our lives can have negative effects on our emotional and mental wellbeing or leave us feeling bored and unstimulated.
Devoid of memories, nothing to record
Without love, we may not have significant memories or experiences worth remembering and recording.
Wishing the one that we adore
We yearn for the affection of the person we admire and are romantically interested in.
Loved us more
We desire for the person we like to reciprocate our feelings and love us back as much as we love them.
Sad love (Sad love, sad love, sad love)
The repeated phrase emphasizes the theme of the song: the melancholy feeling of experiencing unfulfilling love.
Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Written by: Kevin L Barnes
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind