Of Montreal – Coquelicot Asleep in the Poppies: A Variety of Whimsical Verse – Review

Of Montreal

Coquelicot Asleep in the Poppies: A Variety of Whimsical Verse (Kindercore)
by Scott Hefflon

Ever wonder what it woulda been like to hear “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” or something off Sgt. Pepper’s… without knowing that The Beatles were mad geniuses and you’re kinda supposed to just go with them cuz, well, they’re godz and if you don’t like them, it’s just cuz you’re an idiot and you oughtta just keep quiet so people don’t start hitting you? Of Montreal lives up to the odd record title, and while it’s hard to tell just how weird and inventive they are (it’s all considered Beatles-inspired now, unfortunately, and the bar’s set so high, none shall pass, and few can even get so high, even with a little help from their friends), there’s colors tripping everywhere amidst mad orchestration and pianos pitter-pattering and vocals that, solo, sound like Syd, and layered sound, ya know, kinda like John and Paul. Well, not really, but ya gotta point to something, right?

The bio says this here’s a concept record, but I’m not one to dig too deeply and discover that all this madness is simply the story of some tiresomely unhappy songwriter/poet who feels no one understands him and how bummed he is that there’re no good take-out places open late on weeknights. As pure ear candy, only occasionally does the narration become annoying (I try to think of The Princess Bride and how Columbo and that little Savage dork were kinda integral to the storytelling), and while disjointed, well, so’s our thought process most of the time, so who are we to judge?

There’re 22 songs in these 70 minutes, an 18-page booklet that supposedly illustrates the songs, and there are song titles like “Butterscotching Mr. Lynn,” “Upon Settling on the Frozen Island, Lecithin presents Claude and Coquelicot with His Animal Creations for Them to Approve or Reject,” and the closing 18-minute piano epic, “The Hopeless Opus or The Great Battle of the Unfriendly Ridiculous.” I’m not worthy!
(PO Box 461 Athens, GA 30603)