Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti – Before Today
Los Angeles based Ariel Pink (born Ariel Rosenberg) is known in the music scene for his lo-fi basement noise-rock, genre-ized by Wikipedia as “freak folk”, “outsider music”, and probably a whole slew of different categories of music that you and I have never heard of. Previous Ariel Pink albums such as The Doldrums and House Arrest are on a level of their own; self-produced basement masterpieces covered in a thick layer of tape hum and an immense amount of creativity, Pink playing all the instruments and many times even playing the “drums” with his mouth. These albums have made Ariel Pink an established name in the lo-fi indie rock movement of the 2000’s, and with his enormous amount of imagination and ingenuity, there is little separating him from a mainstream breakthrough. His latest release Before Today very well could be that spark that transforms Pink from a struggling musician into a full-fledged artist.
It is clear that Pink had a vision as well as some funding to ensure a solid record front to back this go around. The analog tape recording allows Pink to keep his lo-fi sound, but also bring warmth to the album that so many current artists lack in the current digitized musical world. The instruments on the album are not separated and thought of as individual components, but instead bleed into one another creating a rich and organic feel. Pink and his backing band Haunted Graffiti defy musical categorization by embracing everything from 60’s psychedelia, the golden age of rock and roll, glam, grunge, disco, post-punk, new wave, and 80s pop. The songs sound familiar but yet fresh and new, perfectly transposed for an audience of indie rockers and pitchfork listeners.
The single Round and Round strangely enough happens to be the highlight of the album. This down beat disco-driven tune slowly makes its way into such a powerful chorus line that it is almost impossible not to clap along, all the while wondering, “why the hell am I clapping along to disco, I hate disco.” The solo in Butt-House Blondies brings the listener back to a day when rock n roll was raw and felt real, driving the screeching guitar lick home again and again over sound of a moaning woman’s voice, suddenly being brought to a screeching halt back into neo-psychedelia. Menopause Man is a dreary anthem about a man who wishes to be a woman; Ariel pink ingeniously matches the musicality to the tone of the lyrics by alternating between down-tempo gloom rock and massive pop flamboyancy. The album’s closing track Revolution’s a Lie is an obvious homage to Pink’s favorite band The Cure, sounding almost as if it was an unreleased track off Pornography.
Before Today has some outstanding moments of musicality and will be on many listeners ‘Best of 2010’ lists. As impressive of an album as it is, some of the tracks work better on their own rather than as a whole. I love David Bowie, Marc Bolan, and Michael Jackson but they are all great on different levels and for different reasons, when each track reminds me of a different artist it begins to sound a bit like a mix tape instead of an album. Another disappointment was the Hall and Oates inspired Can’t Hear My Eyes which is filled with fluffy 80’s synth lines, 20 delicately played keyboard layers, and of course the ever popular saxophone outro. Some artists had their place in time and do not need to be revisited, Hall and Oates is definitely one of them. Overall the album is an outstanding achievement and will mark the starting point of Ariel Pink’s career as a respected musician. Before Today is an ambitious, uncompromised, unpredictable, and surreal album with only minor flaws. Pop music will never be the same now that Ariel Pink has his hands on it.
4.5/5
http://www.myspace.com/arielpink
-Reviewed by Drew Griffin
“Before Today” is available at Road Records http://www.roadrecs.com
