It could be said that Of Montreal is too excessive for some people. Too whimsical, too fractured, too freaky and — particularly on 2008's Skeletal Lamping, a nonstop orgy of song devoted to leader Kevin Barnes's mixed-race/transgendered/bisexual alter-ego Georgie Fruit — simply too much. For those folks (and for the rest of us who think that Barnes is ridiculously endowed in the melody department), there is this Jon Brion remix EP. Rather than going the usual club-targeted retool route, the super-producer plays up the power-pop festivities of “An Eluardian Instance” (here kindly renamed “FIrst Time High”). He showcases the honking horn hook and smoothes out the midsection containing the elegiac key line, “Do you remember our last summer as independents?” One of the largely overlooked album cuts of 2008 is now the first pointedly great single of 2009. Any doubters are hereby directed to bask in the mad mandolins of the strummy acoustic “of Chicago” rendition. What Brion does to three similar versions of “Gallery Piece” isn't as radical: The dance track still conveys Barnes's devotion in 50-odd ways, and with vocals now featured, inspired throwaway lines like, “I wanna braid your hair” bob to the surface. The long and… read more »