of Montreal will release the brand new studio album Lady On The Cusp this Friday, May 17 on Polyvinyl Record Co. Today, the band offers one more early taste of the new collection with the devotional R&B surrealist fantasy of “Soporific Cell”, influenced by the Afro-Futurism of Saul Williams’ “Neptune Frost”, the novels of Ursula K Le Guin, and the band Hot Chocolate. With accolades spanning Pitchfork, Stereogum, Under The Radar, BrooklynVegan, Consequence, American Songwriter, Northern Transmissions, Pollstar and more, the new collection is not only a rapturous synthesis of most everything of Montreal has ever done but also Kevin Barnes’ (he/she/they) final transmission from Athens, as they’re now delighted to be living among the snowy peaks and progressive politics of southern Vermont.
Listen / Share:
The new 10 song suite bends gender and genre through complicated, ever-delightful and often woe fueling kinetic tunes of radical incandescence. Written and recorded in the months when Barnes and partner, musician Christina Schneider, prepared them to move, Lady On The Cusp combines a keen reckoning with the past with hopeful glimpses of the future, all clad in Barnes’ purposefully scattershot pop kaleidoscopes.
Nostalgia is not Barnes’ thing, never really has been. While of Montreal’s peers from the mid-’00s indie bloom have often circled back for seemingly endless reissues, reunions, and retreads, Barnes mostly hasn’t, choosing instead to press for novel ways to make the kind of jubilant but tumultuous tunes they have long loved. They will deliver their spectacular live show to stages across the US this spring with a national tour that’ll make stops in NYC, Los Angeles, Boston, Philadelphia, Atlanta, DC, Seattle, Detroit and more. Lady On The Cusp is a compelling reintroduction to of Montreal—a project that has never stalled but has here found and used several new wellsprings of inspiration, all at once.