By album number 14 a band might be forgiven for starting to run out of ideas. That can’t be said of Kevin Barnes’s verbose psych-poppers Of Montreal, who if anything are getting more adventurous with age. Innocence Reaches continues the Athens, Georgia group’s gradual shift away from their lo-fi beginnings and towards more synthetic sounds – Barnes says it was inspired by EDM duo Jack Ü and warped R&B producer Arca. Opener Let’s Relate is a barrage of glitchy synthpop, while A Sport and a Pastime is surely the closest an Elephant 6 collective band will ever get to sounding like PC Music. But Barnes is never one to settle on one sound when 17 will do, and there are also diversions into new wave on Ambassador Bridge, and what sounds like T Rex being chased by a wasp on Gratuitous Abysses. You might sometimes wish Barnes would curb his more outlandish impulses; when focused, he is a fine songwriter, as shown here by album standout It’s Different for Girls, a furious takedown of hyper-masculine “aggro pricks” set to strutting punk-funk.
