ARIEL PINK’S HAUNTED GRAFFITI
House Arrest
Paw Tracks
· The most recent in a string of Animal Collective directed reissues, House Arrest is a fresh batch of Ariel Pink’s genre-hopping homemade weirdness.
For better or worse, Los Angeles lo-fi wunderkind Ariel Rosenberg (a.k.a. Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti) has constructed a sound that is inarguably his own. With guitars, keyboards and mouth-made drum sounds – reference points range from Guided By Voices to Olivia Tremor Control to Brian Wilson jamming underwater, all as heard through an AM radio – this grainy non-production may not be for everyone, but the unabashedly sugary hooks have the potential for instant addiction.
"Getting High In The Morning" is the most immediate song of the bunch, with a fuzzy guitar line pulsating over psychedelic sounds and a singable chorus. "West Coast Calamities" opens with a second-long snippet of The Byrds’ "Turn Turn Turn" before launching into a moody lost-love lament, as Ariel longs for "a chick who puts up with my shit, and puts out." "Interesting Results" is a messy meta meditation, with a chorus of "Will I write a song you love today? There’s no way to tell and who cares, well I don’t." "Almost Waiting" is all tambourines and Bee Gees-style falsetto, and "Alisa" sounds like Morrissey fronting a disco band.
However, the most representative track here is "Hardcore Pops Are Fun." It’s catchy and simple, and contains knowingly naive lyrics like "pop makes it seem so easy, any sound will do." Let’s hope this statement continues to ring true, and that Ariel’s streak of abnormally enjoyable releases carries on.
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