Album Reviews Leonard's Lair Music Reviews Leonard's Lair - Bringing you weekly updated music reviews Bringing you weekly updated music reviews
Reviews     Best     Links     About
Leonard's Lair Music Reviews Music Reviews
Music Reviews Album Reviews CD Reviews Music Reviews Indie Reviews
Alternative Reviews CD Reviews Album Reviews
CD Reviews
Reviews of Music
Album Reviews
 
Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti Album Reviews 4out of 5
Album Reviews
House Arrest

Album Reviews
No doubt about it, Ariel Pink has hit on quite a unique sound. Yet then again it takes a strange mind to mangle 1960s/1970s pop music, sing it in a mentally unhinged fashion and then record the whole experience on the most primitive equipment. The skill really is in making it all strangely listenable and perhaps even lovable. The scene is set on the cover art as blurred photographic images recall the days of shocking low-budget horror films like 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre'. Thankfully Pink's music may be short on production frills but surprisingly high on addictive qualities.

As it happens, 'House Arrest' is arguably his most coherent offering yet. Opening with the crazed pop of 'Hardcore Pops Are Fun' and 'Interesting Results' the grasp of melody is undeniable. Two of the most effective songs are odes to females called 'Helen' and 'Alisa' but as usual these are twisted love songs; the latter boasting a chorus "You're in my heart, you're in my dreams, you're in my soul" so eerily delivered it's feasible to believe the next line could be "You're in my basement in a permanent state of unconsciousness". Delving further into the record, 'The People I'm Not' bears echoes of an early 1960s beat group but - just like the chilling piano ballad 'Oceans Of Weep' - this is pop music of the very darkest hue. In fact, only on the psychedelic mess of 'Gettin' High In The Morning' does Pink's imagination get the better of him. Otherwise its a listening experience of a most macabre, unsettling yet ultimately thrilling kind.

Album Reviews
  Track Listing
01 Hardcore Pops Are Fun
02 Interesting Results
03 West Coast Calamities
04 Flying Circles
05 Gettin' High In The Morning
06 Helen
07 Every Night I Die At Miyagis
08 House Arrest
Standout Track Alisa
10 The People I'm Not
11 Almost Waiting
12 Oceans Of Weep
13 Netherlands
14 Higher And Higher

Standout Track = Standout Track

Album Reviews
Weblink:
http://www.paw-tracks.com/
Album Reviews
Also Recommended:
Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - Worn Copy
Babybird - The Original Lo-Fi
Blackloud - Mysterious Waves
Cursor Miner - Cursor Miner Plays God
Jones, Stephen - Almost Cured Of Sadness
Album Reviews
print this reviewprint this review Album Reviews print this reviewemail this review
Music Reviews CD Reviews
Alternative Reviews CD Reviews Album Reviews
Alternative music reviews Album Reviews CD Reviews Record Reviews Indie Reviews
go to the top of the page Music Reviews Music Reviews Music Reviews
Music Reviews Music Reviews Music Reviews Music Reviews Music Reviews