Ariel Pink

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.

the lofi-ness is what got me to pay attention in the first place.

specifically, "Credit".

"he is a very LA artist"

why?

xpost teflon - yes shamelessly downloading now. I also listened to some of House Arrest on Spotify and it didn't disappoint. My favourite artist of the 00s (Max Tundra) had Worn Copy as his favourite of the 00s. Oh my here we go.

it's mainly the mix of bright sounds with foggy (or smoggy) production. he gives off a very hollywood blvd scuzzy vibe, just reminds me of driving past run-down buildings in a cheap convertible.

^Yes, compare the mellow, soft-focus glide of Round and Round to 'Warm Ways' by Fleetwood Mac, maybe the ultimate cali-pop band.

I want a girl that's beautiful like a sunset...
on a strip

y'know it makes me ... tick
cause I see you (see u) in a special way

specifically, "Credit".

That song rules. It's like the Village Green Kinks wrote a synthpop soundtrack to an 80s infomercial.

does the chorus of Round and Round creep anyone else out (in a good way)? I can't put my finger on it, but something about it strikes me as eerie. kind of surprised to see people saying that song is good vibes... to me it sounds like it is intentionally trying to channel those sort of crazy burnt-out 60s/70s phony good vibes, like Manson or Wilson trying to do happy pastoral. maybe I'm just reading too much into the whole persona that has been built up around him, or too much into the awesomely spooky production on this album.

Go back through his albums, richie. That's an effect he puts to good use frequently. He does this weird high pitched funny voice a whole lot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81LO9A4WR9A

round & round chorus sounds totally prom to me

xpost i can definitely see where you're coming from, it strikes me as sort of creepy and sad. its heightened by the fact that the lyrics (from what I can make out) don't seem to refer to much of anything outside of the song itself, yet the songwriting still works on the listener, making you feel the good vibes despite the negativity humming in the background of the song.

this is the first song i've heard by ariel pink that i've really gotten into, but from what i've heard (and seen) of him, i'm not surprised to be getting this vibe. i think its more effective for me in this song, though, because the production is cleaner and the good-pop feelings more pronounced.

How can you listen to Among Dreams and not here he already had it a few years back?

Or this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=433lmLPr6Yw

Dude's just a talent.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9yvRU8WMZY

I love that there's renewed interest.

Critics just seem naturally conservative and backward thinking to me. Back in the early 2000s when people were trumpeting Ariel Pink as an innovative artist, Pitchfork and others were totally trashing and ridiculing his work. Now all of a sudden ... it's great! ... now that lots of people are starting to appreciate him, and "the times" are safely within his style and perspective.

What do you do about that outside of feeling good you were there first?

write about what you like in a way that makes other people wanna hear it?

I've got this on now, I've been listening obsessively to his back catalogue over the last month so the timing of this is great. It may be more polished but it's as stylistically scattershot and hook-filled as his other albums so, yeah, I'm happy. The whole 'Godfather of Chillwave' thing is news to me, I have to say.

Ariel addresses the point about P-Fork giving him initial bad reviews due simply to the fact that they didn't unveil him to the world. All the other smaller online pubs followed suit( as they usually do) with "this guy's schtick, its trying-too hard to be weird, we don't like it",. Basically alot of critics didn't know what to make of him. He was given a very positive review via Rolling Stone and P-Fork snarkily felt that if a big middle brow pub liked this Ariel Pink dude, well we obviously don't because we are the indie-elite and know better that this guy really just sucks. To what extent all this is true, is anyone's guess, but thats how Ariel puts it in a nutshell.

ariel pink otm

kind of surprised to see people saying that song is good vibes

Round and Round IS good vibes

dudes trying to turn this into Pitchfork thread #457647981398645 is bad vibes

HOLD ON I'm callin, callin BAAAACK has been stuck in my head all day.

IMO R&R is the only track that really gains from the hi-fi production. More than a couple of these would be better lo-fi because you expend effort trying to pick out and hear the hooks, leaving less room for analyzing how good the hook itself is. More transparency isn't good when a passage is too simple or on the weak side compositionally. But maybe that's just me.

"Think autistic kids covering Brian Wilson or Tom Waits singing a nursery rhyme or Shakespeare eating shit in an alley or Jesus giving birth to a pack of bear cubs."

Gah, can't work out which early-'80s british pop singer the vocals on 'Bright Lit Blue Skies' remind me of... I'm thinking Nick Heyward but I'm sure there's someone else.

^current favorite track cuz it's GORGEOUS in Missouri today.

"IMO R&R is the only track that really gains from the hi-fi production. More than a couple of these would be better lo-fi because you expend effort trying to pick out and hear the hooks, leaving less room for analyzing how good the hook itself is. More transparency isn't good when a passage is too simple or on the weak side compositionally. But maybe that's just me."

I think "Butt House Blondies" and "Little Wig" are the glaring weak tracks on the album, and they both suffer from lack of hooks. But others like 'em, so maybe the hooks just aren't for me.

IMO R&R is the only track that really gains from the hi-fi production

The production may be more hi-fi than his other albums, but it still sounds like it's stuck in some strange time warp. It's better fidelity but the tones of all the instruments, the synths, and the vocals are all very much in the same spirit as his old recordings.

Also I really like the new version of Beverly Kills.

Gah, can't work out which early-'80s british pop singer the vocals on 'Bright Lit Blue Skies' remind me of... I'm thinking Nick Heyward but I'm sure there's someone else.

Pete Wylie?

agree about "butt house blondies", its the weakest link. is anyone hearing grunge in that riff ?

i'm hearing some butthole surfers there

round & round chorus sounds totally prom to me

to me it sounds like what someone who didn't go to prom would want it to sound like as an adult looking back

Pete Wylie?

I can sort of hear it but that's not who I was thinking... Eh, It'll hit me eventually.

you know its weird that in the this huge thread there's just one Todd Rundgren mention. because thats always the big thing that pops out for me. worn copy, which i love by the way, sounds to me basically like a re-do of A Wizard, A True Star.

i thought of Rundgren too! just didnt mention it..

i mean i agree with the LA thing; there's a creepy steely dan thing going on, some fleetwood mac bits, but far more Rundgren. but saying that i haven't heard the new one so things may have changed.

it's still Rundgren (wizard), even more than before