“Aureate Gloom” is a return to form both thematically and from a composition standpoint to 2007s “Hissing Fauna: Are You the Destroyer?” It is also the best of Montreal album in nearly a decade. “Aureate means something ornamental,” lead singer Kevin Barnes explained in Stereogum, “It would be used more to describe something beautiful. So it’s kind of a juxtaposition of the two extremes: An aureate gloom would be a sort of aesthetically interesting or beautiful ugliness, if that is possible — a sort of beautiful misery or something.”
A lyrical thread that weaves throughout the album is the dissolution of Barnes’ marriage to his wife of 11 years. Following the separation Barnes went on a sabbatical in New York City to immerse himself in the feeling that inspired 70s NYC giants like Television. “The album is very personal. My wife and I separated in December, so I went off on some sort of journey, living a bit recklessly, a bit wildly, and just sort of reestablishing my sense of identity,” Barnes said. “My personal life has been in turmoil for the past year or so,” Barnes told The Charleston City Paper, “So that definitely had a lot to do with the lyrical content of the record, and the album is very autobiographical. And it’s interesting to me that I just stumbled upon this method that worked really well where I would write about different people in the same song, but I wouldn’t specify who it was at any point. So I could be singing about one person for one line and then the very next line be singing about a different person and then the next line singing from my concept of what their perspective or situation would be. I find that my mind just works that way. Collage art is just easy for me, and I can get into a good work flow that way if I’m not trying to make sense or if I’m not trying to make something that other people can understand.”
The album opens with first single, “Bassem Sabry.” Named after the Egyptian reporter and activist who recently, and mysteriously, fell to his death off a balcony, this is the one track on the album that is not autobiographical. “The mutinous tramp of cold voltage crucifixion is my conduit,” Barnes sings before breaking into call and response shouts of “yeah!”
“Aureate Gloom” is full of tight guitar riffs and disco-tinged bass lines. If last years “Lousy With Sylvianbriar” was a step in the right direction for of Montreal then “Aureate Gloom” is a return to form. A raw nerve pulsing with danceable drums and falsetto breaks it beckons you to listen again and again and again.