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UR FUN

by of Montreal

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1.
Don’t want to holiday i want to educate myself Not going out tonight i need to educate myself And though we find ourselves in this era’s darkest heart forces of wickedness will not tear us apart Hush hush don’t let’s be negative Hush hush don’t let’s be cruel Hush hush i don’t think that i can do it for myself but i can do it for us The cops were barking “up against the wall!” While our hearts were singing “peace to all freaks!” You cannot spin us round your hate roulette We know the Universe must express itself as awful people too so we really just feel sad for you His folks are very stupid, i won’t do you like that Her folks are very racist, i won’t do you like that Somebody must have told them during some crucial stage that if you’re dead inside you don’t really age Hush hush don’t let’s be cynical Hush hush don’t let’s be bitter Hush hush If you feel like you can’t do it for yourself then do it for us
2.
Went to her art show “hello” “ hello” “yeh sis I know your name” Little star struck because i knew about her Insta-fame, that’s just whatever I’d still feel the same Three months later vibes are something out of Liquid Sky,it’s become apparent i must share her with this other guy that’s just whatever guess I’ll have to try, that’s just whatever guess I’ll have to try I can’t keep up with the girl, she’s not mine though she’s not his either messy in love with the girl, i’m guessing the T is that she needs variety, I can’t keep up with the girl, Are we just the quarry in her sex safari? Aye yai yai! I can’t take another lonely night, you’re gonna have to choose IDK, i cannot say, can i be chill with this? Something about open couples doesn’t feel real serious, i guess all the same i’m poly-curious Playing musical lovers is starting to feel kind of kitsch, if you want monogamy are you just like some basic bitch? I guess it’s just whatever current sitch, i guess it’s just whatever current sitch Aye yai yai I can’t take another lonely night, you’re gonna have to choose one day, not to put you on blast babe, but you’re gonna have to choose one day you’re gonna have to choose one day
3.
Contextualising the metal bibliotheque as if to say “I am the redeemer”, where alpaca is the most practical safe word to end an El General song you translated Eden Eden Eden tears falling on your French to English dictionary While i read Gary Indiana’s Horse Crazy next to your sex toy shaped like a pink banana We don’t want to be safe, we want experience, we want it louder It’s crushing our ears, we don’t give a fuck, we want it louder Loud enough to destroy the talismans of our depressions We don’t want to be safe, we want experience, we want it louder It’s good to look in your eyes knowing your eyes aren’t the boredom of the soul Because they high kick me like Sly Stone on the cover of Fresh We’re all winners and everything’s cool, we’re gonna be okay ‘cause we’re special Anyway i thrive on racing thoughts that would drive other breeders totally mental I’m only trying to get God’s attention by being an atheist, if we could transcend linear time think of what it would do to our inhibitions
4.
Suddenly we’re dolphins in the sea of love and i’m kissing you in caps lock Going mental brings us closer to God and you are Prince for finding me beautiful Before you I couldn’t listen to Cucurrucucu Paloma without falling apart But now you’ve made me the matador of my dreams A Box Of Rain in Chinese speakers the morning after crying games did what dancing naked couldn’t up in Boshra’s 3rd Street flat Oh poor Daniel, torn to pieces, now i get his verse with Christina the First, though I’m forever committed to you, in us there’s a spirit that can’t be tamed, no apologies for the Gypsy that remains I love myself when you touch me, i hate myself when you are sad, i love myself when you’re gorgeous, i hate myself when you go mad, i love myself when you’re laughing, i hate myself when you’re upset, i love myself when you’re easy, i hate myself when you’re hard to get In this strange existence everybody’s hit with so much pain and society seems to be set up to make us insane You’re my moral compass, you’re my saviour, that’s what’s real, i want you in my arms forever, that’s just how i feel You get me nobody gets me, i get you nobody gets you, you want me nobody wants me, i want you no...well everybody wants you We’ve survived all of the fighting all the secrets all the games because we truly love each other we’re not into throwing blame the fire that we have inside is feral no it can’t be tamed it can’t be tamed it can’t be tamed No apologies for the Gypsy that remains
5.
Listening to your heartbeat realizing it’s my heartbeat too ‘cause if something were to happen to you i would lose my mind and i’d never get it back Listening to your breathing realizing it’s my breathing too because if something were to happen to you...oh no i don’t even want to think about that There never seems to be enough time I no longer feel like lying is just a form of self love, at least not to the same degree Diamanda Galas said that mortality is insulting and now i tend to agree Now i treasure the day we made the promise to always sing No More Lonely Nights You’ve inspired me unconsciously into somehow living my favorite life There never seems to be enough time, when the time is over it never seemed to be enough time Always want more time with you I no longer have to wonder who or what that i belong to ‘cause i belong to you I’ve never been so proud to be tied up and to be spoken for ‘cause I belong to you I remember when you dropped me off at JFK, we kissed in traffic til the cops started bugging out, middle finger in the air ‘cause that’s our way of PDA, you’ve had me everywhere, all over the world
6.
‘Cause we are Carmillas Of Love we will stay together, forever suckin on us together, yes the Blood Splattered Bride, La Novia Ensangrentada or literally to die of pleasure The sometimes bathetic acting erased his teen from Sister Lovers sauf le Français dans Femme Fatale, la Femme et le Fatal, wouldn’t she rather just listen to the Fall? Emotional ocarina in Vitacura on Jodorowsky, choking on the beauty, the Andes must be joking and buying you a something special oh yes everything is so special, I clearly lost at kissing the Goth though now the function of secrets is dead, they’re all out of my head Christina wants to try Ecstasy as our couple’s therapy, i’m down and we we we can go more GGG before we talk to Dr Osborne again ‘Cause we are Carmillas Of Love we will stay together forever vibrating together yes The House With Laughing Windows La Morte Negli Occhi Del Gatto or literally any Mario Bava I, the Knight Of Pentacles, through Valleybrink whistles of Twisted Nerve with eyes coal-black as a Death Throne track
7.
I don’t wanna die in Jacksonville, don’t wanna die in Omaha, don’t wanna die in Morgantown don’t let me die in America don’t let me die in America, i don’t even want to haunt this place don’t let me die in America i don’t wanna die in America I don’t wanna die in Fayetteville, don’t wanna die in Worcester, don’t wanna die in Cincinnati It is the hour of the wolf and so they strive to keep all work content free Bad faith of evil men manufactures consensus reality Do i need to be committed because i don’t rate white jesus? Have i lost my country because i have no love for piggy piggy fascists? I could die on Hydra, I could die in Taipei, I could die in Lisbon
8.
Standing on the edge of sanity throwing insults at the void, zero plus zero is the Lord’s work but if you do it he gets annoyed, i’d feel less like St Sebastain if you’d stop searching for another arrow, why are you always repeating yourself like you’re trapped inside of Bolero? Now you cry Fake from the comfort of your bell jar, I know you think you’re better than me, Well maybe you are,oh but then you’d have to admit that being better hasn’t got you very far Floating with your head underwater screaming hatred into the sea, wasted wasteful anger time is the only time you made for me I have no reason to think about you to worry or to care, you used to be my main man but when i look at you now, he’s not there
9.
The treatment it did nothing for me, nothing i recall I’d feel just like a sociopath if i was feeling anything at all Pain won’t make you beautiful and pain won’t make you strong I knew that you thought both were true and i guess i just played along How does it feel to own such a trendy excuse? It’s just like Catherine says “having boundaries is abuse” Now that i’m the paradigm of all that you resent, if you’re ever kind i just assume it was an accident You’d probably have a habit now if we weren’t so poor, i know i’m to blame for your DSH though not in the way I was before I can be combative, though it’s not always worth the fight, i’m so quick to correct myself even when i know you know i’m right She said “i don’t want you dead, i don’t even need you dead to me, but if i can’t make you impotent i know that i’ll never be free”
10.
I can’t go to work today ‘cause i’ve forgotten how to human I’ve chosen not to make revenge art anymore, i’m cured of schizofriendia I’d love to be the anxiety free happiness-man, man that’s not me Why does everything seem fake? Why does it all seem so unreal? Dissociative Disorder has got me driving my baby’s guitar insane If everything’s fake i wanna be fake, it’s so lonely being the only one who thinks they’re real Now it’s my greatest joy making something “David Rock n Roll” He’s definitely not some random singer or a slave of Mr Duck Rosier than Antonious Block realizing God what a waste Why does everything seem fake? Why does it all seem so unreal? Dissociative Disorder has got me driving my baby’s guitar insane If everything’s fake i wanna be fake, it’s so lonely being the only one who thinks they’re real Why does everyone seem fake? Why does it all seem so unreal? Dissociative Disorder has got me driving my baby’s guitar insane If everything’s fake i wanna be fake, it’s so lonely being the only one who’s sort of real

about

Kevin and Christina make out in a car at the airport, flipping off the police officer that tells them to keep moving. Kevin and Christina discuss taking ecstasy as couple’s therapy. Kevin and Christina break down and then reconnect. The new love we heard about on the last of Montreal record, White is Relic/Irrealis Mood, is settling. If that was the falling-in-love record, then this is the staying-in-love record. That was the easy part; this is the interesting part, the challenging part, the next chapter of Kevin Barnes’ autobiographical album streak, UR FUN.

The public diary that started with of Montreal’s classic album Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? has continued into a growing string of increasingly personal works. On UR FUN, Barnes is more candid than ever, presenting ten concise electro-pop songs that expose the depths of his current life, his private thoughts—both optimistic and brooding—and his passionate relationship with songwriter Christina Schnieder of Locate S,1. This ramped-up vulnerability has inspired Barnes to strip his stage persona of costumes and drag, just appearing as himself on recent tours for the first time in many years.

After several albums recorded with collaborators and various band members, Barnes opted to record this one completely alone. In his home studio in Athens, Georgia, Barnes isolated himself in creative hibernation, working obsessive 12-plus hour days arranging manic synth and drum machine maps on a computer screen with bouncy, melodic basslines, glam guitars and layered vocal harmonies. Inspired by albums like Cyndi Lauper’s She’s So Unusual and Janet Jackson’s Control, Barnes set out to make UR FUN into the kind of album where every song could be a single, complete with huge hooky choruses and nostalgic dance grooves. The result is an unstoppably fun album that could also pass for a carefully sequenced greatest-hits collection if taken out of context.

UR FUN contains a fundamental contradiction that will be familiar to of Montreal fans. The songs have a youthful, contemporary dance-pop feel, but contain dense, multidimensional, adult lyrics. The album’s opener and first single, “Peace To All Freaks” is a “protest song against totalitarianism, familial terrorism and wastefulness in all its forms” (says Barnes) that expresses love to the outcasts and the gentle people in this world, leaving us with this reminder: “Hush, hush/ Don’t let’s be cynical/ don’t let’s be bitter/ If you feel like you can’t do it for yourself then do it for us”. On “Polyaneurism”, Barnes playfully meditates on the ups and downs of polyamory and unconventional relationships: “Playing musical lovers is starting to feel kind of kitsch/ if you want monogamy are you just like some basic bitch?” According to Barnes, the song “Get God’s Attention by Being an Atheist” is about “the pleasures of childlike destruction and reckless joy seeking.”

Literary and cultural references on UR FUN run thick. In the same manner that Barnes’ lyrics turned thousands of listeners onto the obscene French novel The Story of the Eye in the past, UR FUN packs nods as diverse and obscure as the films of Itallian horror filmmaker Mario Bava, queer novel Horse Crazy by Gary Indiana, Panamanian pop star El General, 80’s sci-fi movie Liquid Sky, Big Star’s cover of “Femme Fatale,” French death metal group Death Throne, and the beautiful Mexican love song “Cucurucucu Paloma” by Caetano Veloso, to name just a few.

UR FUN’s final moments bring the self-examination of the record full circle with some darker numbers that lament a lost friendship and slips of mental clarity. If the album’s bleak ending leaves you feeling hopeless, flip the record over again and remind yourself “Hush, hush, don’t let’s be negative.” This is all for fun after all.

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released January 17, 2020

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