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.
― mizzell, Friday, 9 April 2010 17:35 (fourteen years ago) link
^Yes, compare the mellow, soft-focus glide of Round and Round to 'Warm Ways' by Fleetwood Mac, maybe the ultimate cali-pop band.
― Davek (davek_00), Friday, 9 April 2010 17:39 (fourteen years ago) link
I want a girl that's beautiful like a sunset...on a strip
― Trip Maker, Friday, 9 April 2010 17:48 (fourteen years ago) link
y'know it makes me ... tickcause I see you (see u) in a special way
― dmr, Friday, 9 April 2010 17:54 (fourteen years ago) link
specifically, "Credit".
That song rules. It's like the Village Green Kinks wrote a synthpop soundtrack to an 80s infomercial.
― Adam Bruneau, Friday, 9 April 2010 18:06 (fourteen years ago) link
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.
― richie aprile (rockapads), Friday, 9 April 2010 18:14 (fourteen years ago) link
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.
― teflon monkey, Friday, 9 April 2010 18:44 (fourteen years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81LO9A4WR9A
round & round chorus sounds totally prom to me
― J0rdan S., Friday, 9 April 2010 18:45 (fourteen years ago) link
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.
― karl...arlk...rlka...lkar..., Friday, 9 April 2010 18:53 (fourteen years ago) link
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.
― teflon monkey, Friday, 9 April 2010 18:55 (fourteen years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9yvRU8WMZY
I love that there's renewed interest.
― teflon monkey, Friday, 9 April 2010 18:59 (fourteen years ago) link
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?
― Spectrum, Friday, 9 April 2010 19:16 (fourteen years ago) link
write about what you like in a way that makes other people wanna hear it?
― karl...arlk...rlka...lkar..., Friday, 9 April 2010 19:20 (fourteen years ago) link
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.
― Gavin in Leeds, Friday, 9 April 2010 19:28 (fourteen years ago) link
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.
― oscar, Friday, 9 April 2010 19:34 (fourteen years ago) link
ariel pink otm
― samosa gibreel, Friday, 9 April 2010 19:36 (fourteen years ago) link
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
― dmr, Friday, 9 April 2010 19:43 (fourteen years ago) link
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.
― skip, Friday, 9 April 2010 20:03 (fourteen years ago) link
"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."
― oscar, Friday, 9 April 2010 20:10 (fourteen years ago) link
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.
― Gavin in Leeds, Friday, 9 April 2010 20:25 (fourteen years ago) link
^current favorite track cuz it's GORGEOUS in Missouri today.
― Trip Maker, Friday, 9 April 2010 20:35 (fourteen years ago) link
"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.
― teflon monkey, Friday, 9 April 2010 20:37 (fourteen years ago) link
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.
― Adam Bruneau, Friday, 9 April 2010 21:14 (fourteen years ago) link
Pete Wylie?
― Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Farting in Space (NickB), Friday, 9 April 2010 21:24 (fourteen years ago) link
agree about "butt house blondies", its the weakest link. is anyone hearing grunge in that riff ?
― oscar, Friday, 9 April 2010 21:41 (fourteen years ago) link
i'm hearing some butthole surfers there
― Zeno, Friday, 9 April 2010 21:48 (fourteen years ago) link
to me it sounds like what someone who didn't go to prom would want it to sound like as an adult looking back
― richie aprile (rockapads), Friday, 9 April 2010 22:11 (fourteen years ago) link
I can sort of hear it but that's not who I was thinking... Eh, It'll hit me eventually.
― Gavin in Leeds, Friday, 9 April 2010 22:12 (fourteen years ago) link
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.
― Jamie_ATP, Friday, 9 April 2010 22:22 (fourteen years ago) link
i thought of Rundgren too! just didnt mention it..
― Zeno, Friday, 9 April 2010 22:24 (fourteen years ago) link
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.
― Jamie_ATP, Friday, 9 April 2010 22:27 (fourteen years ago) link
it's still Rundgren (wizard), even more than before
― Zeno, Friday, 9 April 2010 22:29 (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
Savagely disappointed that he wasn't in fact singing 'and we'll dance to Limahl'
― Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Farting in Space (NickB), Friday, 9 April 2010 22:46 (fourteen years ago) link
Now this is starting to sound interesting...love Ariel but he needs to take it the next level...imagine Todd Rundgren producing...
― sonnyboy, Monday, December 8, 2008 9:45 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
like not blowing my own Trumbone but for me it's been Rundgren all along and who should of produced the album...on first impressions slightly dissapointing...hasn't got that weird/hooky thing going on...not sure having a band has really helped things and not sure I'm gonna be able to convert the Catholics who don't get it but it's early days...certainly nothing approaching a 'Trepanated Earth' or 'For Kate I Wait' on there...
― sonnyboy, Saturday, 10 April 2010 00:48 (fourteen years ago) link
with all the cure talk, surprised no one has remarked some of the similarities b/t fright night and a forest
― anza, Saturday, 10 April 2010 02:16 (fourteen years ago) link
― Mark, Saturday, 10 April 2010 03:06 (fourteen years ago) link
The chorus of "Round and Round" sounds like "#9 Dream" by John Lennon to me.
― Maltodextrin, Saturday, 10 April 2010 05:37 (fourteen years ago) link
Listened to it five times yesterday. Prettay, pretttay great isn't it.
― Dwight Yorke, Saturday, 10 April 2010 08:52 (fourteen years ago) link
"Sentimental, heartbreaking, everything is my fault"
Is this quoting a song? I swear it's quoting something but a lyrics search hasn't turned up anything.
― Adam Bruneau, Saturday, 10 April 2010 16:41 (fourteen years ago) link
i'm sorry to revive this thread for no good reason beside saying again how great this record is - and it's getting even better as time goes by.
the sort of record i'm pretty sure i'll also get back to in the future
― Zeno, Tuesday, 13 April 2010 22:10 (fourteen years ago) link
otm, this record sounds like it's been melted.
it's not the lyric but the melody that's quoted, i believe, came on here to see if anyone could figure it out
― tmi finney (samosa gibreel), Tuesday, 13 April 2010 22:13 (fourteen years ago) link
god round and round is so awesome
― Davek (davek_00), Wednesday, 14 April 2010 16:38 (fourteen years ago) link
beverly kills is my current favorite.
― mizzell, Wednesday, 14 April 2010 19:46 (fourteen years ago) link
Fright Night is my jam.
― teflon monkey, Thursday, 15 April 2010 04:50 (fourteen years ago) link
right now it's like this:
Fright Night+Round And Round+Menopause Man = great
Bright Light+L'estat = very good
Beverly Kills+Revolution's+Can't Hear My Eyes+Butt-House = good
Instrumental Tracks = ok
― Zeno, Thursday, 15 April 2010 05:00 (fourteen years ago) link
oh and Little Wig - very good
― Zeno, Thursday, 15 April 2010 05:01 (fourteen years ago) link
Bass playing on Reminiscences is unreal.
― Trip Maker, Thursday, 15 April 2010 05:27 (fourteen years ago) link
Beverly Kills chorus sounds like the chorus to Ago's "For You."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VV9k--wqeOg
― Brooker T Buckingham, Thursday, 15 April 2010 16:17 (fourteen years ago) link
Bass playing throughout is pretty awesome.
― Adam Bruneau, Thursday, 15 April 2010 17:04 (fourteen years ago) link