Today I’ve got short takes on three artists I like that have a problem.  They are all prone to the esoteric and downright bizarre song titles.  (And yes, I know I live in a glass house, being someone whose blog titles tend toward the lengthy and parenthetical).  Still, there is a line between intelligently appropriate and pretentiously indulgent.  After all, these folks are all putting out damn catchy three-to-five minute (more or less) indie pop tunes, not avant garde experimental symphonies.  Truth in naming, people.  That’s all I’m asking.

Of Montreal

This band has produced some of the flat out catchiest hooks I’ve heard in a long time.  And some of the strangest titles.  What am I supposed to do with an album called Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?  Well, in that case, not buy it.  I do own the equally unfortunately titled Aldhils Arboretum, which is a good introduction to the band if you’re looking for an entry point.  Start out with the punchy and concisely named Jennifer Louise.  If you like that, sample on.  It is a little less intimidating than a song off The Sunlandic Twins called Wraith Pinned To The Mist (And Other Games), though that song will also bore into your brain and not let go.  (In fact it probably already has since it has the dubious distinction of also being the Outback Steakhouse theme song.)  The latest album, Skeletal Lamping, has a gorgeous song named An Eluardian Instance.  I’m sure that there is a really deep reference in that name that I should look into.  But what I really want from this song is to shut off my brain, immerse myself in its synthy disco beat and wake up a few minutes later feeling happier that I was before.

Sufjan Stevens

Granted, this is a guy who is known to wear a pair of wings in concert, so I’m gonna assume he is always letting his freak flag fly high (which for the record I have no problem with).  I am a big fan of the album Illinoise.  It soars, it dips, it weaves, and it is lushly melodic.  But, still.  Do you really need a 19 second song with a 20 word title?  (For the record, that title is “A Conjunction of Drones Simulating the Way in Which Sufjan Stevens Has an Existential Crisis in the Great Godfrey Maze”)   It is infuriating to try and tell a friend that there is this great song called “They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back from the Dead!! Ahhhh!”  Really, that’s just kind of silly.  Or how about “Concerning the UFO Sighting Near Highland, Illinois”?  I’ll just lay out a blanket rule — if my Ipod has to scroll to show me your entire song title, it is too long.  Sufjan, you’re headed in the right direction with the wonderful choral “Man of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts,” which has the added bonus of joining the list of pop songs about Superman.  But really, you don’t need the ridiculous titles.  One of my favorite songs on the album is simply called Jacksonville.

The Decemberists

This band may the one that truly earns the obscure naming rights.  After all, a song like “Eli, the Barrowboy” is actually about a barrowboy named Eli.  And for the record, it is a beautiful song about love and loss.  The Decemberists are not exactly a throwback.  Their subject matter may be more appropriate for historians and historical novelists, but the music, while tinged with the past, fits comfortably in the indie rock present.  Unfortunately, just as I find an 800 page historical novel to be a lot of work, I find that listening to The Decemberists requires more attention than I’m often willing to give.  Maybe that’s why I haven’t picked up their last two albums yet.  I’m still working on Picaresque, which is worth the effort when I’ve got the energy.  Take for example, the eight-minute-plus sea shanty, The Mariner’s Revenge Song in which a man spends his life tracking down the villian responsible for destroying his mother and finally exacts the revenge of the title inside the belly of a whale.  There’s a lot to think about there.  Even my favorite song on the album, We Both Go Down Together, at only three minutes, forces my brain to work through its Shakespearean unconventional love story.  Still, having just listened to the album again to write this has made me appreciate the band once again.  Maybe I’ll got download the new album.  Once my brain recovers.

Anyway, enough griping out of me.  Enjoy the music.  You are supposed to be listening to it, not reading it after all, right?