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.
Our Love is Senile
of Montreal Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Wants to leave me again
Though it's sad, I really should want her
"You can only break up so many times
Before losing us to absurdity
Without becoming farcical," she said
How can we continue when you're telling the truth and I still don't believe you
Wondering if it's a geek or precedence
And just how to lay her forward
When her man is a mess and never there
Though it's sad we've no populace
It's much worse to gather in silence
But it's more than just civility, we need laughter, happiness, madness, anything
Our love is senile
Like a blind child bumping into walls
Say it's not guilt keeping us together
How can we support each others' wills?
Our love is senile
Like we don't recognize each other
Somehow we relapsed to being strangers
And scaling black tiles of sacred ground
Now it's time to play the socialist
And protect my little chick from a problem and confusion
It's evasive misses no solution
The lyrics of "Our Love is Senile" by of Montreal are a poignant exploration of the complexities of a relationship that has gone sour. The song delves into the feelings of two people who have been through a lot together but are struggling to hold on to the love that once bound them. The first verse sees the female partner turning a corner and wanting to leave her partner once again. While it is clear that this is a sad moment for both of them, the male partner realizes that he should want her to leave. After all, they have broken up so many times before that their relationship has become farcical.
As the song progresses, we get a glimpse into the internal dialogue of the female partner. She is tired and wonders whether her partner's lack of presence is due to his geekiness or some other precedence. She knows that they need more than just civility to hold their relationship together. They need laughter, happiness, madness, anything that will help reignite the spark that once existed between them. But despite this realization, they seem to be slipping away from each other more and more every day. They are like strangers to each other, and their love has become senile, just like a blind child bumping into walls.
Overall, "Our Love is Senile" is a nuanced and introspective song about the ebbs and flows of romantic relationships. It speaks to the human desire to hold on to something that was once beautiful but has now become twisted and distorted by time and circumstance.
Line by Line Meaning
So now she's turning a corner
She has changed her mind and wants to leave again
Wants to leave me again
She desires to end the relationship once more
Though it's sad, I really should want her
Although it's heartbreaking, I should let her go
"You can only break up so many times
Before losing us to absurdity
Without becoming farcical," she said
She expressed that breaking up too many times is absurd without making it comical
How can we continue when you're telling the truth and I still don't believe you
I find it hard to trust her despite her honesty about leaving
So now she's getting tired
She is becoming worn-out with the situation
Wondering if it's a geek or precedence
Thinking whether it's a minor issue or a more significant problem
And just how to lay her forward
Pondering how to end things
When her man is a mess and never there
Feeling unsupported and neglected by me
Though it's sad we've no populace
It's unfortunate that we don't have anyone to turn to for help
It's much worse to gather in silence
Being silent and not communicating is even more difficult
But it's more than just civility, we need laughter, happiness, madness, anything
We need more than just polite behavior, we need joy, positivity, and excitement
Our love is senile
Our love has deteriorated like the mind of an elderly person
Like a blind child bumping into walls
Our love is directionless and chaotic
Say it's not guilt keeping us together
We shouldn't stay together out of a sense of guilt
How can we support each others' wills?
We need to encourage each other's desires and aspirations
Our love is senile
Our love has worsened over time like an elderly person's health
Like we don't recognize each other
We have become strangers to one another
Somehow we relapsed to being strangers
We have regressed to being unfamiliar with each other
And scaling black tiles of sacred ground
Navigating through difficult and taboo subjects
Now it's time to play the socialist
And protect my little chick from a problem and confusion
It's evasive misses no solution
It's time to act as a caregiver and shield my partner from any more issues and confusion, but it's not an easy fix
Lyrics © OBO APRA/AMCOS
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