To Kevin Barnes, Skeletal Lamping is a summary of his own most absurd and perverse thoughts personified as the transsexual glam rocker Georgie Fruit. To Of Montreal fans, it is a failed experiment too ambitious for its own good. It's easy to see how fans become lost trying to follow Skeletal Lamping into its depraved, erotic world. Kevin Barnes is a master of pop sensibility, but you wouldn't know it from the unfocussed chaos and apparent lack of structural integrity present on the band's ninth album.

Every two of Lamping's fifty-seven minutes presents a new idea, a new musical direction, and the album's shining moments never last or repeat themselves. In fact, only one or two of the fifteen tracks feature discernible choruses. It is as if Skeletal Lamping is Kevin Barnes' stream of consciousness; no one line of thought resolving as it spasms during nearly an hour of exhausting continuous movement. It is an album that falls apart if you don't have the patience for the macrocosm of melodies and events.

At this point it may appear as if I'm slagging off the artist who wrote my favourite album for attempting something beyond his pop credentials; expectations for brilliantly crafted choruses and standard structure are clearly violated, however, none of the aspects mentioned adversely affect the album. On the contrary, Skeletal Lamping is crafted for the album format, drawing listeners as aggressive and curious as the content. Every track contains at minimum one moment of pure genius songwriting, and the fleetingness contributes greatly to the intrigue.

Typically the word "grower" is thrown around heedlessly to excuse any album that delivers a boring first listen. It is an offhand label, but in this case, can be proven to apply. Lamping cannot be digested in a single sitting. It is an album so diverse in ideas, so layered, and so chaotic, a listener can't grasp on to any one particular aspect to return to it. It takes a number of listens before any of the dozens of melodies can be retained in memory.

Kevin Barnes' has a versatile voice, blooming with characters he plays flawlessly, from the arrogant alpha male in Gallery Piece and Id Engager to the saucy diva in Plastis Wafer. Equally unpredictable is the turn of musical events; cocky, manic grab-bags interspersed with sexually charged sprints and weary piano balladry. Lyrically it ranges from raised-eyebrow-inducing graphic eroticism to childish absurdism, and like the nymphomaniacal characters depicted, leaves the listener yearning for a repeat performance.

Skeletal Lamping is a greatly misunderstood and vastly underrated romp over the curves and through the orifices of Kevin Barnes' mind, with so much clever and arousing content as to keep it fresh for the long haul.