Following up “Fugitive Air,” Athens, Georgia art rockers of Montreal have released “She Ain’t Speakin’ Now” as the second single from their upcoming twelfth studio album Lousy With Sylvianbriar. Like “Fugitive Air,” the new single finds Kevin Barnes and co. moving further away from the all out glam-rock that the band have produced in the past, and instead taking strong influence from music of the 1960s and 70s.
“She Ain’t Speakin’ Now” features an array of psychedelic guitars and vocal turns reminiscent of the likes of Syd Barrett. Yet, amidst the more low-key approach of the new single Barnes remains as quotable as ever. The song was apparently written about a period during the recording of Lousy With Sylvianbriar when Barnes’ wife and daughter were “bedridden with a terrible illness.” Fortunately, they both fully recovered and, as he has done in the past, Barnes managed to turn a worrisome experience into a great pop tune. Perhaps no one else can turn images of bedridden, terrifying fever dreaming into catchy pop lyrics quite as well as Kevin Barnes: “You’re hallucination ravings, I’m writing them all down so you can read them.”
