I’m reminded of the beginning of “Karaoke” by T-Pain, during which he emphatically insists “WATCH ME DO ME! WATCH ME DO ME!” and then precedes to do, love it or hate it, what he always does, and furthermore, what he does best. See also: False Priest by of Montreal.

of Montreal is a pop band. And a pop bands “live and die” factor is getting attention from as many people as possible. Upon a few listens, False Priest, seems to aim straight at the core of both the love of the lovers and the hate of the haters, and to me, that’s a peak achievement in the quest for attention. People who love of Montreal are going to get everything they want from this record and people who do not love of Montreal will have their fill of things to mock and disparage many times over with this new journey through the jizzed-out funk anthems of Kevin Barnes.

For the lovers, a step back towards SONGS!!! 2008′s Skeletal Lamping, was grinned at and tolerated by many fans as a victory lap for it’s predecessor, Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? Despite actually being comprised of a great many mind-bending moments, it was just way too deconstructed to be very much fun. Thankfully, the of Montreal live show simultaneously blossomed and helped avoid what would’ve seemed like kind of a partykill album. Well, we are back to songs and back to fun! Cameos by Janelle Monae and Solange Knowles, Barnes’s flirty falsetto blacknesses (which sometimes sounds like a white parent trying to illustrate the silliness of hip-hop vernacular, which I like), and actual musical genius Jon Brion working on taking the of Montreal sound OUT of midi-land and into technicolor (and slam dunking it) all come together to lift up False Priest and make it something that the lovers can go nuts to. It is weird, it is highly danceable, and it is otherwise allegiant to all the things that people have come to expect from these albums, but with a new shiny production.

For the haters, if you don’t like this band or this album, the things to loath about it are endless. The sterile production and possibly wasting Jon Brion’s time/talent, the piped in funk and shameless winks and homage, the never-ending spray of non-sense lyrics and fake black slang, etc etc etc etc. You know how things look when you aren’t feeling them.

(note: I love this album and am only relaying some opinions I heard in discussing it. I have zero-hate)

But if you don’t have the hate in your heart, it’s some pretty serious fun. And there are some real steps forward here, regarding the use of real instruments and heavy bass, and a lot of great steps backward. False Priest sees a lot of the smart and compelling songcraft of pre-Lampings recordings, bridges and fluid twists and changes. And beyond that, we are just where we are with of Montreal. We’re 10 albums in, and each one has ushered in the next. We very easily could’ve followed Skeletal Lamping with 100 tracks of 15-second song fragments that are unrelated to one another, but instead, we get to keep the party going. Thank goodness.

Recommended track: “Like a Tourist” with headphones on.

MP3: Of Montreal ft Solange Knowles – ‘Sex Karma’