Big Orange Crayonmusical thingsOf Montreal Horse and Elephant Eatery (No Elephants Allowed) the Singles and Songles Album Kindercore Records A songle is a song that has never been on an album and was never a single, but was previously released in some form or another. That means that this is a rarities collection, more or less. It's a chance for all of us without the stamina to track down every 7" or compilation that Of Montreal has a song on to finally be able to listen to all of these wonderful songs. They really are wonderful. Of Montreal has a fairly unique ability to make songs that have an old fashioned yet catchy feel to them while, at the same time, dealing with subjects as different as lonliness and lost baby spiders. Since this wasn't planned as an album, it isn't the cohesive masterpiece that the Gay Parade was, but it is still a great collection of songs that sound like the belong together, even if it wasn't planned that way. From the beginning, it's witty, charming and fun to listen to, and has some moments that just make you stare in amazement at their sheer creativity. "Ira's Brief Life as a Spider" has to be one of the most delightfully silly songs I've ever heard - it stars off with a brief musical introduction, and then is just a spoken word story about a spider named Ira that dies through a nonsensical string of disasters, with a twist ending that I won't ruin. It's quite cute and bewildering. The rest of the album is comprised of more proper songs, but they have the same charm. My other favorites are the colorfully morbid "Scenes From My Funeral", and "Nicki Lighthouse" which is beautiful in a bizarre sort of way. I guess the whole big, red chunk of vinyl is like that, really. Total score: 618 out of 618 |