This one is going definitely going to net him a new audience. The production is excellent, shimmering and hazy, and shows he can work just as well within a more "produced" setting. Late 70's Fleetwood Mac aesthetic is definitely in place, plenty of weirdo lounge-pop; this has "LA Record" written all over it.
― oscar, Thursday, 8 April 2010 20:57 (fourteen years ago) link
what are the lyrics of the chorus of "round and round"?
today i've been singing "i'm goin baaaaaack/ goin baaaaaack/ to the maaaaaaaaall"
― goon with the wind (J0rdan S.), Thursday, 8 April 2010 21:07 (fourteen years ago) link
now is the time alloted for ariel pink, huh. is this just 4ad publicity? or ppl hate lofi more than i thought. not sure what else helps an act like this move up a division as it looks like is going on.
― ogmor, Thursday, 8 April 2010 21:26 (fourteen years ago) link
ariel pink is da best at basslines
― samosa gibreel, Thursday, 8 April 2010 21:27 (fourteen years ago) link
s this just 4ad publicity?
partly, sure
or ppl hate lofi more than i thought.
hifi music is generally more accessible
not sure what else helps an act like this move up a division as it looks like is going on.
writing a single as good as "round and round"
― goon with the wind (J0rdan S.), Thursday, 8 April 2010 21:28 (fourteen years ago) link
xp OTM "alisa" por ejemplo
― 69, Thursday, 8 April 2010 21:28 (fourteen years ago) link
people like to think they're watching artists grow up and mature and grow, and this all fits into his whole narrative about shedding the bullshit and giving you the real, raw deal ariel pink.
― samosa gibreel, Thursday, 8 April 2010 21:29 (fourteen years ago) link
chorus of the year so far imo
the raw pink
― goon with the wind (J0rdan S.), Thursday, 8 April 2010 21:29 (fourteen years ago) link
can't wait to see this dude live
― puff puff post (uh oh I'm having a fantasy), Thursday, 8 April 2010 21:31 (fourteen years ago) link
@ the hollywood bowl
― puff puff post (uh oh I'm having a fantasy), Thursday, 8 April 2010 21:34 (fourteen years ago) link
ogmor: i'm listening to this album pretty loud in my living room atm and my stepfather just asked what artist this is, and said he was groovin to it and would check him out. he's not a total grump but i'm pretty sure if it were any other ariel pink album he would have just told me to turn it down or off entirely.
― samosa gibreel, Thursday, 8 April 2010 21:34 (fourteen years ago) link
this album will fill the niche this year that the girls album did last year
― goon with the wind (J0rdan S.), Thursday, 8 April 2010 21:39 (fourteen years ago) link
Except I won't find it lacking.
― Johnny Fever, Thursday, 8 April 2010 21:42 (fourteen years ago) link
unsure how much ilm head-types differ from the dads of the world in lofi tolerance. I spose 4ad is the biggest factor; pretty sure plenty of ppl digging this wld have no clue if he'd recorded anything this good before, quality is necessary, not sufficient.
― ogmor, Thursday, 8 April 2010 21:43 (fourteen years ago) link
I've been in and out of familiarity with Ariel Pink since the first stuff started coming out (way-too-hip weirdo music friends), and there's definitely been a shift to a more accessible songwriting style in that time. The lofi to hifi shift doesn't hurt things, but I don't think it really explains the sudden greater interest in the way the better/different songwriting style does. I mean, people went nuts over Times New Viking for a hot minute and they record things over a phone on an answering machine.
― Johnny Fever, Thursday, 8 April 2010 21:47 (fourteen years ago) link
the songwriting seems more key, its more poised & elegant and less crazed rs moore, amateur fan in the bathroom. maybe I wish the relationship between those two sounds was more up for grabs for more ppl, but I am a guy that just wants to see more love from ppl all the time anyway
― ogmor, Thursday, 8 April 2010 22:05 (fourteen years ago) link
almost every song sounds like a direct pastiche for another band/song.
but it's a professional theft.
― Zeno, Thursday, 8 April 2010 22:07 (fourteen years ago) link
Album sounds good on one listen but nothing sounds as great as "Round and Round"
― congratulations (n/a), Thursday, 8 April 2010 22:08 (fourteen years ago) link
Round and Round is the sort of a song i usually likes at first, but after awhile neglect it in favour of the more sophisticated,less immediate stuff, that lingers longer
― Zeno, Thursday, 8 April 2010 22:16 (fourteen years ago) link
I'm having trouble figuring out why all of Ariel's previous albums were largely ignored and yet the leak of this one is an internet-wide musical/cultural event.
― skip, Thursday, 8 April 2010 22:21 (fourteen years ago) link
cause of THE PRODUCTION
and the single i guess
― Zeno, Thursday, 8 April 2010 22:24 (fourteen years ago) link
i'm having trouble figuring out why you've apparently chosen not to read any of this thread
― goon with the wind (J0rdan S.), Thursday, 8 April 2010 22:24 (fourteen years ago) link
in terms of songwriting - it's still kinda "difficult"xpost
― Zeno, Thursday, 8 April 2010 22:25 (fourteen years ago) link
also apparently he is influential now iirc
― samosa gibreel, Thursday, 8 April 2010 22:26 (fourteen years ago) link
ive listened to this on repeat all day and agree with zeno. even though "round and round" is more immediate, the other songs virtues are starting to really shine through. its def a grower and conducive to close listening. from what i can tell this album is going to please many different types of people. also the varied comment upthread is otm, but its still cohesive soundwise.
― oscar, Thursday, 8 April 2010 22:33 (fourteen years ago) link
also lol at "beverly kills" sounding like a boogie/freestyle track and a stereolab b-side
― oscar, Thursday, 8 April 2010 22:37 (fourteen years ago) link
it's like a trivia game: guess the origin of the song.for example:
Little Wig = mercury rev's Syringe Mouth
― Zeno, Thursday, 8 April 2010 22:43 (fourteen years ago) link
I listened to this while working, so I wasn't entirely focused on it, but what hit me a few times while listening to this was a sort of deja vu feeling of listening to side 2 of the Cure's
Standing on a Beach/Staring at the Sea
― richie aprile (rockapads), Thursday, 8 April 2010 23:03 (fourteen years ago) link
lol @ formatting, those were supposed to be italics
haha - haven't heard the new one, but I always felt that there was a distinctive Cure thing all over his music. SoaB b-side is a good reference point, with that similar murky, underwater bass sound that permeates some of these songs
― licorice oratorio (baaderonixx), Friday, 9 April 2010 08:25 (fourteen years ago) link
can someone point me to some places where this is an "internet-wide cultural event"? what internet are you on?
this is a serious question
― Kyrgyham (surfboard dudes get wiped out, totally), Friday, 9 April 2010 13:16 (fourteen years ago) link
new single posted on tons of blogs, reported on pitchfork, etc. It's not different from the media buzz around your average indie p4k band but I don't recall any of that for past Ariel Pink releases.
― licorice oratorio (baaderonixx), Friday, 9 April 2010 13:34 (fourteen years ago) link
http://www.google.com/trends/viz?q=%22ariel+pink%22&graph=weekly_img&sa=N
― INSUFFICIENT FUN (bernard snowy), Friday, 9 April 2010 13:42 (fourteen years ago) link
my theory is that since dude released like a zillion albums from '04-'07 before going quiet for a couple years, he's getting a lot of "oh hey, ariel pink, I remember sorta-liking what I heard of that guy -- wonder what he's up to now?" general-interest clicks
― INSUFFICIENT FUN (bernard snowy), Friday, 9 April 2010 13:46 (fourteen years ago) link
Loving this. I think I like it even more since I'm already familiar with about half the songs.
― Trip Maker, Friday, 9 April 2010 13:51 (fourteen years ago) link
(said clicks, of course, tending to alight upon his super-catchy, accessible, and just generally great new single, then proceed to show their approval through a series of retweets and complex interpersonal dance steps, and next thing you know dude's getting a thousand hugs from ten thousand lightning blogs)
xp
― INSUFFICIENT FUN (bernard snowy), Friday, 9 April 2010 13:51 (fourteen years ago) link
xoxoxo
― Kevin John Bozelka, Friday, 9 April 2010 14:20 (fourteen years ago) link
― INSUFFICIENT FUN (bernard snowy), Friday, April 9, 2010 9:46 AM (42 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
he hasn't released anything on a label with any kind of presence since 2006, right? quite possibly the internet has changed a lot since then.
― mizzell, Friday, 9 April 2010 14:30 (fourteen years ago) link
Thus the 'forefather' status.
― Adam Bruneau, Friday, 9 April 2010 14:37 (fourteen years ago) link
He's been putting out some great singles on his own, which all turn up on Day Before. And there was the reissue of Loverboy on 2lp.And there was a digital collection called Grandes Exitos that had an early version of Revolution's a Lie called Evolution's a Lie.
― Trip Maker, Friday, 9 April 2010 14:37 (fourteen years ago) link
xxp yeah I guess most people got into this guy during these last 4 years and this is simply his first release since most people took notice of him.
― licorice oratorio (baaderonixx), Friday, 9 April 2010 14:37 (fourteen years ago) link
I know it's probably a bad idea invoking Animal Collective on here but i think the situation with this album is not dissimilar to what happened with Merriweather Post Pavillion, it's being touted as his "pop" album, more accessible production etc. It's not hard to see why people are more interested in this than his previous stuff (which i love).
― Number None, Friday, 9 April 2010 14:51 (fourteen years ago) link
It's the HRO factor?
Damn this album is awesome! Gonna be some good jams for summer 2010 dance parties!
― Adam Bruneau, Friday, 9 April 2010 15:59 (fourteen years ago) link
Fright Train is addictive.
― Zeno, Friday, 9 April 2010 16:13 (fourteen years ago) link
Fright Night i mean
― Zeno, Friday, 9 April 2010 16:14 (fourteen years ago) link
finally figured out what he's saying in Round & Round after about the 100th listen: AND WE'LL DAZZLE THEM ALL
not "and we'll dance at the mall"
(although I'm still hazy on the line before that ... "calling back to the boat?" "coming back to the Bowl," like the Hollywood Bowl?)
― dmr, Friday, 9 April 2010 16:42 (fourteen years ago) link
yeah, sounds like boat to me.i was reading a book to the melody of the chorus yesterday.
― mizzell, Friday, 9 April 2010 17:00 (fourteen years ago) link
The big difference with Animal Collective is that all of AC's albums were critically acclaimed during the buildup toward a more slickly produced "pop" hit. By contrast, Pitchfork gave Grandes Exitos a 7.0, House Arrest a 6.2, Scared Famous a 6.1, and Worn Copy a 5.9, and many other outlets didn't even bother to review Ariel's albums. The new record is not better than House Arrest yet it's going to get slobbered over by everybody. I haven't read any good reasons why it's as good as HA, let alone significantly more accomplished, or repudiations of previous negative writeups, but it's early. We'll see what the reviews say.
― skip, Friday, 9 April 2010 17:04 (fourteen years ago) link
HA is rad.
― bamcquern, Friday, 9 April 2010 17:05 (fourteen years ago) link