Well, it couldn't last forever.

Kevin Barnes's four album streak starting with 2004's Satanic Panic in the Attic was the stuff wet dreams are made of: confessional, fantastical, occasionally miserable but even then exuberant and always with just a dash of disco. Preceded by five enjoyable if precious and overly clever releases, Panic, The Sunlandic Twins, Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer and Skeletal Lamping saw Barnes growing into a worthy songwriter and bandleader, as well as a husband, father and ex-patriot.

After that, what's left to do? He's confessed his sins and shot his load. And now? Now he's writing songs, which is something he's become pretty good at. He's not wrenching his heart out in the past or present tense anymore. On False Priest, Barnes is crafting tunes in his own likeness.

Which isn't the worst thing in the world, but it's not the most exciting thing either. Barnes has made epic pop, something that's hard to pull off (finding massive frivolity in the eye of an oxymoron), something that takes a genius like Prince or Brian Wilson to properly stitch together. But those Rushmore-like figures also took breaks to just sing songs. If we make geniuses be genius all the time, they'll grow to resent us.

So let's allow Barnes his false priesthood. The songs are good, peaking just before midpoint with the eminently hummable "Hydra Fancies" followed by the quizzically rocking "Like a Tourist," and ramping up again with the cold funk of "Around the Way" (with Mrs. Barnes taking a verse in Norwegian!) and the hard-edged ego-social-consciousness (he couldn't completely not sing about himself, could he?) of "You Do Mutilate?" And if it seems something of a let-down after the previous quadrumvirate, go back and listen to his earlier song suite for Dustin Hoffman. If nothing else, Barnes has totally learned the right amount of preciousness to use.

Having spent so much time as a one-man extravaganza and, at the same time, the leader of an orgiastic pop ensemble, Barnes shows up here with a stripped down of Montreal, with just Jon Brion (keyboards, guitars, drums) and Matt Chamberlain (percussion) supplementing his multi-instrument-ing. There's also a small chorus of young superstars, including Beyonc�'s little sister Solange Knowles and r'n'b comet Janelle Monae, suggesting Barnes might be more than willing to buy in as a producer and songwriter, which wouldn't be a bad move. A softcore Dungeons & Dragons hip-hop opera with Nicki Minaj would up both their games.