Dr. Frankenstein The World

of Montreal “Sails, Hermaphroditic”

Daughters of Cloud is a collection of rarities and outtakes, but the first half of it is as tonally and thematically consistent as most of Kevin Barnes’ deliberately composed albums. The opening run of tracks are some of his busiest funk tunes; they’re all just a bit too much for any of the past few OM records, but they fit together nicely as a sustained bass-heavy freakout. He was clearly experimenting with persona and perspective in a lot of these cuts, and this just amps up the schizoid quality of the sequencing. It’s a nice complement to Paralytic Stalks from earlier this year – while that record drags the listener through some of the lowest depths of a bipolar mind and the most spiteful moments of a dissolving relationship, Daughters is like a super-fun version of dissociation.

“Sails, Hermaphroditic” is a False Priest outtake, which is kinda obvious in its concision and pinched tonality. (For whatever reason, everything on that record feels a bit too vibrant, like the sonic equivalent of saturated colors that sting your eyes.) Like a lot of songs from that period, it’s very sour and bitchy – I mean, the hook is Barnes saying that if he could change the world, the first thing he’d do is “change the shit out of you.” I’ve been feeling conflicted about this strain of his songwriting – it can be kinda thrilling, but the ugliness of it can get to me. Maybe I recognize too much of that anger and pettiness from my own worst moments?

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