‘Wintered Debts’ dignifies of Montreal’s strut
Paralytic Stalks will be landing on a turntable, iPod, CD player or maybe even a cassette deck near you on Tues., Feb. 7
A couple of weeks back (Nov. 21 to be exact), of Montreal leaked a new song via the group’s website titled “Wintered Debts.” Now the next album has a release date. Paralytic Stalks will be landing on a turntable, iPod, CD player or maybe even a cassette deck near you on Tuesday, February 7, via Polyvinyl Records.
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The album was created, performed (mostly), and produced by longstanding mastermind Kevin Barnes, who’s been known to take the lone gunman route from time to time. For this album he holed up in his own Sunlandic Studios in Athens, Ga., and later mixed the record at Chase Park Transduction with engineer Drew Vandenberg (Deerhunter, Toro y Moi, Futurebirds, the Whigs, Drive-By Truckers).
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“Wintered Debts” takes a long, first look at where Barnes’ head is these days, and judging by this song he’s uncovered a new, slightly dark and endlessly perplexing layer of his psyche to explore. Sounds like his MO, right?
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Here Barnes switches into “Songwriter with a capital S mode,” at times, but there are a lot of fugue-like moments that unfold during “Wintered Debts’” seven-minute+ run. Elements of country, ’60s rock and subtle touches of reeling minimalism collide here, instilling icy, modern classical inclinations with a cozy, modern pop vernacular.