General Article name: Gay Parade
Genre: Pop/Rock Product type: LP (Vinyl) Label: Bar / Bar None Records / Bar/None Records / None Number of tracks: 16 Tracklist LP - 1 1. Of Montreal - Old Familiar Way 2. Of Montreal - Fun Loving Nun 3. Of Montreal - Tulip Baroo 4. Of Montreal - Jaques Lamure 5. Of Montreal - March of the Gay Parade 6. Of Montreal - Neat Little Domestic Life 7. Of Montreal - Collection of Poems About Water 8. Of Montreal - Y The Auale And Vaguely Bird Noisily Enjoy Their Forbidden Tryst/I'd Be a Yellow Feathered Loon 9. Of Montreal - Autobiographical Grandpa 10. Of Montreal - Miniature Philosopher 11. Of Montreal - My Friend Will Be Me 12. Of Montreal - My Favorite Boxer 13. Of Montreal - Advice From a Divorced Gentleman to His Bachelor Friend Considering Marriage 14. Of Montreal - Man's Life Flashing Before His Eyes While He and His Wife Drive Off a Cliff Into the Ocean 15. Of Montreal - Nickee Coco and the Invisible Tree 16. Of Montreal - Gay Parade Outro   Description Description

The Gay Parade is indie pop's very own Sgt. Pepper, a richly detailed, grandly ambitious concept record which forgoes the ponderous pretensions the phrase implies to instead exult in the simple joys of everyday life. Kevin Barnes' songs radiate a childlike wonder and boundless enthusiasm, discovering beauty in the most unlikely of places; his lyrics suggest psychedelic nursery rhymes, populated by absurdist characters (each and every one depicted on the jacket art) sketched in Crayola across a series of majestic melodies and ornate arrangements which belie the record's surface naïveté. For all of The Gay Parade's effervescence and whimsy, there's also a melancholy that pervades songs like "Jacques Lamure," "The Autobiographical Grandpa," and "My Friend Will Be Me," recalling the lovelorn hues of the previous Of Montreal record, The Bedside Drama: A Petite Tragedy; far from deflating the euphoria, however, these moments simply acknowledge the necessity of sadness and loss to the human experience, and deem them worthy of celebration as well. These are songs in the key of life, Zen-like expressions of simplicity and innocence resonating with remarkable complexity and wisdom. ~ Jason Ankeny

Jason Ankeny

Contributors Artist: Of Montreal Record Label: Bar/None Records Record Label: Bar None Records