The first time I heard this album, I was actually a little disappointed, expecting something less... well, glammy. But after each listen, it grew more on me, and now I think it's one of my favorite albums ever. I think it ranks up there with other "classic" albums, and I think this will be one of the best if not THE best of 2007. I don't know what it is about it, but I've listened to it about 20 times in the last 2 weeks. It's extremely infectious - well-written, arranged, produced, and performed - extremely catchy but deep enough to enjoy many times over. It's an all-around great album.

And so starts another break-up album. But wait, where are the strings? Where are the plaintive acoustic guitar strums? Why doesn't the music sound, you know, sad? Not since Death From Above 1979's You're a Woman, I'm a Machine has a break-up album been so well disguised. While most poor saps show up to the party with a broken half of their heart on either sleeve, Of Montreal main man Kevin Barnes would rather come dressed in a bright colorful coat and shout obscenities through a smile. Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? makes use of exuberant synth-pop as release therapy. Each track makes a claim for the dance floor as a form of liberation. Basically, it makes parting ways sound like a party.

Ditching most of the classic psych-pop of their Elephant 6 days, Hissing builds even more toward the direction hinted at on their last two efforts. Clocking in at barely over a minute, "Sink The Seine" is the only remnant. It opens with a chorus of "La La La's" sounding like a modern day Beatles song; from then on, it's genreally new territory.

While it's a party on the musical end, the lyrical substance is nothing short of depressing. The album was created in the wake of Kevin's separation from his wife, not your average two-year-relationship-gone-wrong. The centerpiece of the album, "The Past Is A Grotesque Animal" is an eleven-minute psychological rant full of non-sequitors. "I guess you just want to shave your head have drink and be left alone?" Kevin asks himself in third person on "Cato As A Pun". "Is that too much to ask?" he replies. "Come on mood shift, shift back to good again" he begs on "Heimdalsgate Like A Promethean Curse" over a bed of rumbling synths before they erupt into a cheerful chorus. It's as if he has nothing but the music to persuade him.

Hissing Fauna also manages to illustrate the side of break-ups most tend to hide. Such as immaturity, "There's the girl that left me bitter/Want to pay some other girl to just walk up to her and hit her," dependency "Chemicals, don't mess me up this time/Know you bait me way more than you should," and naiveté, "We want our film to be beautiful, not realistic".

Despite the overall weight of the subject matter, Hissing isn't necessarily a heavy listen. It's easy to ignore the dismal undercurrent and take it at face value, especially if you've never experienced a bad break-up. Even if you have, you won't find a better form of therapy.

...which is just what my mood did after listening to "Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer". I am nothing but immensely pleased with my purchase of this cd and would trade any of my cd's over it instantaniously.

Over the past few years Of Montreal has changed their style of music dramatically. Upon my first listen to "Cherry Peel" I would never expect to be hearing this years down the road. Although different, there is nothing negative to be said about the album.

The first half of the album is very poppy and up-beat and time flies while listening to it. After six songs that catch your attention completely, a darker 12 minute long half way mark is churned out. Although you can see change coming, thou shant be scared. The song is just as dancable/interesting/brilliant. It screams these adjectives while Kevin advises: "lets tear this s**t apart, lets tear the f***ing house apart, lets tear our f***ing bodies apart". The adrenaline pumps.

After 12 minutes that has felt like MAYBE four, it bursts into "Bunny Ain't No Kind of Rider", one of the catchiest tunes on the album. Afterwards, the album takes a short trip through a few "disco-like" songs that are undeniably pleasing. It merges into the final song, which leaves you wanting more when it ends. I advise you to press the "Play" button on the cd player when this moment comes.

So, basically, this album has blown me away and I am listening to it as I am writing this review. I'm pretty sure this is the fifth or sixth time i've listened to this cd in the past two days. I hope you find Kevin Barnes/the rest of Of Montreal as amazing as I do, and I advise you to buy it right now.

Enjoy.

Of Montreal has been diddling around with the poppy dance sound for a few albums now, as opposed to the bright tweepop of their early work.

And they're in excellent form with the sprightly pop tunes of "Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?", where they try out all sorts of driving, lush pop music, full of bizarre flourishes and mad instrumentation. It's like being locked in a musical rainforest, if that makes any sense.

It opens with a baby babbling and a guitar being plucked. Then the fuzz starts. Finally the energetic dancey riff kicks in, with Kevin Barnes singing merrily, "We just suffer for fashion, oh whatever!/We don't want these days to ever end/we just want to EM-AS-CULE-ATE them, foreevvveerrrr..." I don't know what it means, but it sounds funny.

After a foghorn-poppish interlude, the band segues smoothly into the less dancey "Cato as a Pun," with its gongs and odd undulating riffs, and the hilarious "Heimdalsgate Like a Promethean Curse," with a playful keyboard melody and cries of "Come on, chemicals!"

The band tries out all sorts of weird electropop through this album: twee stuffwith handclaps and falsetto voices, trippy pop, sharp-edged psychpunk, rollicking electronic dance mixed with weird samples and screams, and a driving twelve-minute song climaxing with great blobs of wavery synth.

"Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?" is not Of Montreal's best -- artistically, it's a bit scattered, and some of the songs take several listens before you start liking them. But it's definitely a good album, full of colour, life and heartbreak, and lots of inspired indiepop that will have you bouncing in your seat.

In fact, that's what these people do best -- bouncy indie music, and spun out mostly from driving guitar that occasionally turns into pure punk, and waves of sparkling, colourful synth. Those are backed by fuzzy bass, bells, sharp percussion, handclaps and what sounds like a xylophone -- it sounds like Of Montreal was having some kind of psychedelic experience out on the dance floor. No wonder I love it.

Despite the perkiness of the music, Kevin Barnes sounds kind of depressed about his love life, which pushes aside some of Of Montreal's typically weird lyrics. In his slightly offbeat voice, he sings that "I need a lover with SOUL POWER/and you ain't got no soul power." Not to mention "a rejector" that he has to protect himself from. He expresses a wish to hire some other girl to "walk up and hit her," but then shrieks, "but I can't I can't I CAN'T!" Calm thyself, Kevin.

"Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer" not only wins for weirdest title of the year, but it's a fun, charming and slightly bittersweet little album. Definitely worth listening to.

I respect the restraint of other reviewers who hold back listing all the influences on this cd. I'm amazed when I listen to this that I can hear so many familiar voices and sounds, and yet it all sounds so original and incredibly engaging. Though it is referred to by some as '60's era pop, I hear the best side of the '80's all over it: Gary Numan, Freedom of Choice- era Devo, Adam and the Ants, The Cure. But then there's early Bowie in there, too, and the influences just pile up across the decades! This is such an engaging listen, especially with the humor that's so much a part of it. The lyrics are downright hilarious sometimes, while insightful or poignant at others. It may sound strange, but the longing for the genuinely spiritual comes through in this for me. Anyone who can reflect and ponder while generating such a crazy and melodic collision of sounds has my vote. This is the kind of music I wait for.