Ariel Pink

this album will fill the niche this year that the girls album did last year

this album will fill the niche this year that the girls album did last year

Except I won't find it lacking.

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.

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.

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

almost every song sounds like a direct pastiche for another band/song.

but it's a professional theft.

Album sounds good on one listen but nothing sounds as great as "Round and Round"

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

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.

cause of THE PRODUCTION

and the single i guess

i'm having trouble figuring out why you've apparently chosen not to read any of this thread

in terms of songwriting - it's still kinda "difficult"
xpost

also apparently he is influential now iirc

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.

also lol at "beverly kills" sounding like a boogie/freestyle track and a stereolab b-side

it's like a trivia game: guess the origin of the song.
for example:

Little Wig = mercury rev's Syringe Mouth

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

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

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

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.

http://www.google.com/trends/viz?q=%22ariel+pink%22&graph=weekly_img&sa=N

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

Loving this. I think I like it even more since I'm already familiar with about half the songs.

(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

xoxoxo

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, 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.

Thus the 'forefather' status.

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.

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.

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).

It's the HRO factor?

Damn this album is awesome! Gonna be some good jams for summer 2010 dance parties!

Fright Train is addictive.

Fright Night i mean

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?)

yeah, sounds like boat to me.
i was reading a book to the melody of the chorus yesterday.

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.

HA is rad.

Gotta agree. I hate to sound like an elitist old guard fan or anything, but I'm not hearing what makes this better than his other albums. The Doldrums, Worn Copy and House Arrest all sound much more interesting to me. I like the singles and a couple tracks like "Fright Night" and "Beverly Kills," but I'm painfully disappointed overall. It just doesn't seem like that big of a step toward anything to me.

i would agree that outside of round and round, most of these songs are not above and beyond what he has done in the past.

And I would argue that they're still on par with what he's done in the past, which means they're fantastic.

yeah, i agree

the songwriting is more or less the same,yes - but thats good.whay change something that worked so well in the past?
the differene lies in the production and the label.

The main issue here is production, its crisp, engaging and evocative, and more obviously, it functions; and quite well might I add. Many of the "elitist old guard" thought his work would be diminished by better production but this album proves the cynics wrong. As far as it being better or worse than HA is debatable but not really the point. It's a logical continuation of his earlier work and if one takes Ariel's word at face value in his interviews (he has repeatedly said his lo-fi approach was not one bourne of aesthetics but one of exigency) he would have made this record a long time ago.

I agree that "Round and Round" is kind of transcendent, which was not my original opinion, and perhaps the rest of the album will reveal its genius to me over time in a similar fashion. But that's not the kind of thing you can figure out on a snap judgment and it makes the frenzied ululating all the more ridiculous.

Round and Round is wicked - love that chorus. Very curious to investigate this guy. I doubt I'm the only one in this camp.

Listen to The Doldrums. I believe it's one of the very best albums of the 2000s.

this is such an LA album. he should cover this...fast.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjO4vA_MxoU

And don't let the lo fi business keep you from enjoying the music. I think if you listen to any of his albums more than once, it'll be a distant thought.

that's the other thing: all his albums sound like LA albums to me. he is a very LA artist.