Title: Pom Pom
Artiste: Ariel Pink
Genre: ?
Familiarity: Zero
Recommended by: Machine
Expectations: Not the first idea. I see he's linked in some way to Animal Collective; hopefully he's more entertaining and interesting than I found them!
1. Plastic raincoats in the pig parade: Again with the weird titles! (You know, I really should stop saying that: anyone whose favourite band has titles like “Get 'em out by Friday”, “How dare I be so beautiful” and “Dancing with the moonlit knight” has really no business upbraiding anyone over their choice of song title!) Sounds a bit childish, almost like something you'd hear on Mister Benn or something. Psychedelic with a childish twist. Weird. Can't say I like it to be honest.
2. White freckles: More a kind of new-wave style to this. Don't like it either though. Not starting well. Ok I just changed it from White to Red.
3. Four shadows: This isn't any better. I think I hate this guy.
4. Lipstick: This is very The Cars with the kind of fluting breathy synths. I really hope that indicates an upward swing in the quality. It might. Yeah this is a lot better.
5. Not enough violence: Okay, it's taking a much more Human League/Depeche Mode darkish new wave slant now. Once he stopped pissing about with childish ideas he started to sound a lot better to me. I like this. Hey! Isn't that the bassline out of The Jam's “Start”? Great synthwork here.
6. Put your number in my phone: Love the jangly guitar here. Very Smiths/Morrissey in feel (not that I know much of them, but I know what they sound like).
7. One summer night: This has somehow a very French feeling about it. Synths sound like accordions. Kind of. Slower but not a ballad.
8. Nude beach a-go-go: Back to the stupid childish songs. And we were getting on so well!
9. Goth bomb: Not mad about this one either. Boo.
10. Dinosaur carebears: Bit better, but I'm still not that sold on it. Pretty silly carnival/cartoon sounds through too much of it. Bah. Hmm, then it changes halfway and becomes a decent, sort of reggae-based song. Staying White though.
11. Negative ed: Sort of a parody on a punk song I suppose. Meh. Good guitar solo.
12. Sexual athletics: And now we're ripping off seventies hard rock. Lord.
Even a rap, in case I didn't hate it enough. Oh, and just to be on the safe side, throw in some Beach Boys at the end. Give. Me. Strength.
13. Jell-o: Another stupid childish song. ****ing awful.
14. Black ballerina: Yeah, don't like this one either. Sounds very like The Jacksons' “Blame it on the boogie” from the beginning. Stupid movie clip is annoying.
15. Picture me gone: I'm doin' it, believe me, but you ain't gone! Not yet anyway. Okay, this one at least sounds better, very Divine Comedy, but again the main melody is stolen, I definitely recognise it.
16. Exile on Frog Street: Making something of an effort to finish strongly. Again this has DC overtones about it. The ribbits are funny, for once. Childish elements but not as bad as previously.
17. Dayzed Inn daydreams: And a nice acoustic ender. Sort of folky.
End result: An album that really polarised my opinion; some of it I really, really hated, some of it was okay and there were the odd really good tracks, but not enough to lift this into anything like a Green or even an Orange. Debating as to whether it deserves White or I should go full Red on its ass...
So, Love or Hate? Think I'll let it away with a
Meh.