2002 saw the release of two new Of Montreal albums. The first is a tour-only CD entitled Then Who Will Protect Big Oil, Our Children? and featuring, as all Of Montreal albums beginning with (and including) The Gay Parade, the artwork of David Barnes, Kevin's brother. This album is a collection of odds and ends similar to Horse and Elephant Eatery, and sees the release of several songs for the first time in a non-vinyl format. Of particular interest are Inside a Room Full of Treasures a Black Pygmi Horse's Head Pops Up Like a Periscope, released earlier on a 7 inch single, and Girl From NYC, in which the narrator writes "a letter on the flight home, which evolved into a love poem." As an album in whole, it doesn't quite reach the level of their more focused releases but remains nonetheless a good collection of hard to obtain songs.
The second album released by Of Montreal in 2002 was their fifth full-length studio album, Aldhil's Arboretum1. Far from the 22 track, conceptual (yet brilliant) splurge that was Coquelicot Asleep in the Poppies, Aldhil's Arboretum sees of Montreal return to a more straight-ahead, 60's rock and roll style. The level of musicianship remains high, drums crashing, guitar riffing and bass rumbling along in style, but many missed the more album-centric focus of their two previous studio releases, The Gay Parade and Coquelicot Asleep in the Poppies. With that said, Aldhil's Arboretum remains one of Of Montreal's most accessible studio releases and where the zaniness was writ large on their previous albums, here it is more subtle but no less magical.
Therefore, to add to the previous discography:
[1] - a title hinted at several times in earlier releases, the aforementioned 7 inch Pygmi single including the words "Aldhil's Arboretum - at last one with no head", etched on the run-out groove in a style not seen since the days of the Smiths. | 
