Ariel Pink

yeah, that jogs my memory. thanks.

ariel pink appears on Mayonnaise Pen, a track on Black Nasty's Shark Tank album.

Its great but the disparity between the p4k ratings for (to pick one of my faves) Worn Copy and the new one is pretty crazy.

again, based on the (possibly misleading) soundscan sample, the vocal harmonies on the chorus of bright lit blue skies is precisely the kind of big, sweeping epic chorus i remember fondly from the 80s.

bright lit blue skies is magnificent.

Its great but the disparity between the p4k ratings for (to pick one of my faves) Worn Copy and the new one is pretty crazy.

Which is to say the new one should have a lower rating, amirite?

i'll be fuckin livid if there's a huge disparity between Cokemachineglow's review of his first record and the new one

I'd give Worn Copy an 8.5ish. New one a 7.9ish.

Worn Copy's more of a 8.52 imo

House Arrest and the Doldrums are still where it's at.

Bright Lit Blue Skies is a cover of a song by the Rockin Ramrods circa 1966.

<3 mark richardson

This is definitely not his best album. But it is good. The tracks are shorter, more confined and in a way this is not necessarily a good thing. I do like Butthouse Blondies a lot though.

Worn Copy is my fave. I should listen to his other stuff more, but it's all really hotchpotch. Even Worn Copy which I adore I rarely make all the way through. It becomes kind of exhausting.

couldn't disagree more, worn copy, doldrums, house arrest, and lover boy = all killer no filler

well ok 90% killer maybe 10% filler

Reposting Zeno's YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJLYq0tHAPk

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/12909-grandes-exitos/ - 7.0
http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/10966-scared-famous/ - 6.1
http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/6555-house-arrest/ - 6.2
http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/6554-worn-copy/ - 5.9
http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/6553-the-doldrums/ - 5.0

"There's no way this Hollywood hillbilly called Ariel Pink knows who Stephen Merritt is"

― gorilla vs burrr (Whiney G. Weingarten), Monday, June 7, 2010 3:37 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I was hoping for a repudiation, or at least a reassessment, of this long history of trashing Ariel Pink albums. Instead, we get a list of supposed improvements in performance/production and a glib "It turns out that these details make a big difference". What a copout.

idg all the yapping this morning about the disparity between before todays score and previous albums, i mean he addresses it in the review (for basically its entirety), and even admits that there's been a reevaluation of his oeuvre.

i think the review and score are a bit overblown, for some reason this album just doesn't feel huge to me, and i feel like great pop albums should be huge. good songs, though, and i wouldn't want to discourage anyone from getting super excited about it. glad that probably thousands more people will hear it now, too.

xp skip - the review is pretty obviously intended for people who have never heard (of) ariel pink before, though. and i think the little differences adding up to something greater than the sum of their parts is true, if not *revelatory*. a talented nut who got his shit together, i don't know, music isn't always that much more complicated than just that.

Just heard "Round and Round." Damn -- amazing.

Dear Pitchfork: you ain't talking your ass out of this.(Just watched Pulp Fiction again)

i dunno its like fair enough, pink has always been awesome but it really wouldn't have made sense for pitchfork to be into him back in like 2005 so like

wait, why not?

9. POINT. 0.

MUST. DOWNLOAD. DISC. IMMEDIATELY.

Daniel has never been the same since Lala's demise

i welcome it

it's true it's true. i am heartbroken.

actually i love bright lit blue skies song so much, i am downloading the disc tonight.

Besides an admittedly nice hook, I'm not sure what is so incredible about "Round and Round." What about it are fans attracted to? (As easy as that question is to be read with an angry, rhetorical tone, it is actually an innocently curious question. I like hearing about what makes music work for people)

It gives me hope

it make me happy. seriously.

are there a bunch of 70s pop/rock songs sampled in that track? it feels like it.

the value you mortals place on your happiness astounds me!

i think part of what is appealing about Ariel Pink has something to do with this DFW-esque idea of burrowing into self-awareness and irony until you come back around to sincerity. i guess he's always appropriated soft rock and new wave of the 70's and 80's, but up until now it was filtered through a layer of lo-fi noise and weird song structure that allowed it to be received with a sense of ironic distance. but now that it is actually well-produced and he has a band he comes across more as actually just really loving this particular sound and wanting it to be as effective as possible. it's perhaps only updated in the sense of having the perspective of history and a wider scope of influence, e.g. ethiopiques, etc. but i think a lot of people project a certain innocence and naivety and therefore maybe freedom onto unselfconscious soft rock pop of the past, so its appealing to see the trajectory of a guy working through the lo-fi bedroom sound to the point where he can afford to produce an actual soft rock album without the indie-ness (and maybe the implied self-wareness/self-deprecation) of lo-fi production.

speaking of a move from lo-fi production to a cleaner sound, there are certain sections of songs that remind me of Pavement, which might also have to do with the sound of his falsetto.

not that lo-fi production isn't appealing it its own right. and there is obviously a component of Ariel Pink's sound that is just straight up weird and fractured unlike most soft rock of the 80's.

Ariels, in the sky
When you lose small mind
You free your life

Life is a waterfall
We drink from the river
Then we turn around and put up our walls

i have yet to identify the ethiopiques similarities, but maybe because i'm so pleasently surprised by all the 70s/80s pop sounds i'm hearing baked into these songs.

two of these tracks are already among my favorits pop songs of the year. and something on here i haven't focused on yet sounded like the alan parsons project?

xpost LOOOOL i've been trying to do a display name out of that all day

nabisco pointed out on another thread that "reminiscences" is a cover of an ethiopian song off a compilation that he helped compile.

http://www.calliebowdish.com/Birds/TurkeyVultureShaverLake090606_7491.jpg

http://eatourbrains.com/EoB/wp-content/uploads/2006/12/vulture01.jpg

Why does Pitchfork need to reconcile this review with their reviews of other Ariel Pink albums, written by other critics at other times?

because p-fork is an institution and the readers demand critical consistency ;) how many other music message board threads do you see dedicated to online music review sites besides p-fork ?

xpost LOOOOL i've been trying to do a display name out of that all day

― ლ support our troops ლ (Whiney G. Weingarten), Monday, June 7, 2010 11:25 PM (Yesterday)

hahaha

You know that thread about bandnames that you instinctively dismiss... also that album cover with the fox kiss is repulsive imo, too soon for furrie irony i guess? seeing all the love he is getting here i will give it a shot, I like some of the youtubes upthread, though i really can't get by the wobbly tape fx on some.

I agree with some karl's post that some of the appeal of Ariel Pink's music is the "burrowing into self-awareness and irony until you come back around to sincerity."

I also agree that difference between his previous records and this has something to do with indie lo-fi production. Elements of the lo-fi production and weird song structure are still there on this new record, though. As someone mentioned above, the music still sounds "melted", and the production (maybe with the exception of Round and Round) still doesn't read as particularly high-value, at least not on good speakers.

I disagree, however, about the effect of the changes in his music, at least for me. While listening to songs of the previous incarnation, the underwater production and muffled lyrics made it feel possible for me to ignore the ironic distance and imagine the innocence and naivety and unselfconscouness of the music itself. I could project my own feelings/memories/fantasies onto it. With this newest record, with him working this particular sound to make it as effective as possible, he seems more of a japester, and the irony and thinness of the recording are more jarring. It's a little offputting to me.

As jokey as his song concepts and some of the lyrics are, I appreciate the ambiguity of the music and the slightly dark lyrics, so he hasn't completely lost me. The complex structure of the songs is fantastic.

To respond to Evan, Round and Round has a great chorus, yes, but I love how I'm never quite sure when it's going to come again, and the way he alters the instrumentation that accompanies it each time, ending with the bass dropped out for a good chunk. In addition, that one song (like several others) has so many components, interludes, and false starts that it takes a lot of listening to absorb. I wish he would evolve further on the sound of that song.

it sounds like he's not as lonely anymore, which is nice for him.

the intensity of feeling that comes from loneliness is tempered though

and something on here i haven't focused on yet sounded like the alan parsons project?

― Daniel, Esq.

i basically never get that DFW irony-coming-full-circle-to-sincerity thing from AP. though i accept that his enthusiasm for cheezy 70s/80s pop is legit, there's always this massive sense of ironic distance, and it has nothing to do with how clean or dirty the sound is. that's not a complaint on any level, as i genuinely love a lot of what he's done so far, and the new record is great, easily his best yet. his stuff is funny and smart, the tunes are often quite strong, and sincerity seems overrated in the 1st place.