Admittedly, I am still perplexed by the tribal-rhythm opening of this song, but conversely, I'm bowled over by the rest of it. It's clever in structure, progression, and message, and it's today's AC1!

Of Montreal have an eclectic discography, and honestly, a casual listener will probably always be surprised by what they hear from a new OM project, kind of like me and Gomez ("Whoa! THAT'S Gomez, too? I love this song!"). This song surprised me a lot when I first heard it, and it may have been just that quality that dialed it directly into my mind.

The first part feels like a feint, before the real meat of the song takes off. But part of the joy of this song is that the original riff follows the song almost to the end. Keep your ear tuned in, and if you got a groove on during the first few bars of the song, you can keep the groove alive almost the whole way! Even thought the song changes dramatically in scope and volume, the basic elements are still grandly all in place.

So kick back and relax as the guitars take you on a jangly ride, sometimes dropping you off for some horns to take over. And enjoy the abrupt, up-tempo key change near the end. It comes as enough of a surprise that you almost wonder why they didn't break this up into two songs!

All Assail!