Kevin Barnes is one of the finest pop craftsmen in the business and it’s precisely because he—and his band, of Montreal—doesn’t play by anyone else’s rules. From the tricked out cover art designed by Barnes’ wife and his brother to guest vocalists Solange Knowles and Janelle Monae to the hybrid of the heartfelt and the humorous, False Priest is one of the year’s most indispensable releases. The Athens, Georgia based quintet follows up the seminal releases of Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? and Skeletal Lamping with a bristling collection of tracks mixing Barnes’ brand of psychedelia with R&B influences and a heady dose of Parliament-Funkadelic.