Most of the early of motreal stuff is the beatle flshback acid pop music. A good portions of his songs had vivid imagery refering to acid trips along with other drug references. An example of this is in 'Lysergic Bliss' (Lysergic Acid Diethylamide aka LSD) when he sings
Wearing an olive drab
but feeling somehow inside opalescent
Wonder how I'm managing to smile oh
when I can't even pay my rent
Maybe it's because I've finally found
my little tulip my Norge dear
Funny how in spite of all my woes
life can appear rosy and clear
rosy and clear
And I'm dizzy from her kiss
so vertiginous lost in lysergic bliss
Love the way you wear your curly hair
sanguine and spiraling tied in a bun
Love the way it falls about your face
mercurially gilded by the sun
If we were a pair of jigsaw puzzle pieces
we would connect so perfectly
Creating a still photo of a scene
from the Phantom of Liberty
Another good example is his lyrics in 'Spike the Senses' when he talks about getting ****ed up... and the need/want to do so frequently
Every second of every day I let me fancy play
And if the feeling strikes me
I deliquesce into the sky without waving goodbye
While contemplating a fractured pale cathedral wall
death can't touch me at all
Let its rapacious fingers with venomous stingers try
I'd like to see it try
Try to find a way to spike the senses
till everything goes white
I had a vision of vinyl spiders in a cage
and now I avoid the stage
'Cause though it was a trifle I still can't stifle
the fear that they might just reappear
Climbing climbing climbing never falling
If it was up to me I'd freak the clouds
let them fall and grip to the sea
I think the chemicals have done
some evil thing to me
Along with other songs such as 'Climb the Ladder' in which he refers to experience bad trips. This is the most heavily found in Satanic Panic in the Attic. He also has a bunch of love type songs that characterize his early carrer. He began to move away from this with Sunlandic Twins, the first of montreal album to recieve a larger public audience; partly because they sold a song 'Wrait Pinned to Myst and Other Things' to outback for a commercial. I cant really blame them though, if I had released 6ish records and still was broke I imagine I would do the same. I dont know exactly when it happened but if you listen to the album 'Hissing Fauna Are You the Destroyer' Barnes 'lets it all out' sorta speak, going into detail about his life. He talks about how he and his wife got divorced because he cheated on her with a girl named 'Eva' and also goes into detail about their relationship since then. He also discusses how he basically is trying to change his life (supposidly he went sober) and did some soul searching. The final song on the album ends on a happier note with 'We Were Born Mutants Again With Leafling' saying
she says i'm boring her camera
takes more to delight the cadaver
night eyes on icy patrols,
your's were not so nazi feline
mine were as dead as monks
our particles are in motion
night eyes reducing ashes
we love to view unfortunate passions
still she takes my photo to bed
No mere limp verse could incite
identity destruction
our particles are in motion
sometimes we're not legible
but we're the same, stranger animal
let them say our love is peculiar,
don't care
there's only now, no ever after
we won't let it end in disaster
you are my twin
no, i will never go there
From the last I read he is 'dating' his ex wife after a split in which this albums material was in the works. I saw them at funfunfun fest for the third time and he actually had new material for a 'New Album' yet I havent heard anything about it since then or seen anything to back this up. Apparently there is a EP out since HFAYTD, but I havent got a chance to listen to it.
IMO I believe HFAYTD is his best work with Satanic Panic In the Attic in close second... The Bedside Drama, *** Parade, and Sunlandic Twins are also really good listens too. I personally dont understand how you could say he doesnt display great imagery....
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