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Rating: Even with this latest "Before Today", Ariel Pink has not dispelled the doubt whether he is truly a pop master or just a very skillful collector of other people's sounds; and indeed, this could have been the right time to reveal whether his talent is absolute or tied to the clever manipulation of already known atmospheres: new prestigious label (the 4AD), super production by Sunny Levine - he's Quincy Jones's grandson, for goodness' sake! - and the necessary calm (two years since the last work) to produce the album of change.
Perhaps though this is another missed opportunity: he indeed offered the same low-fi pop we already know, thus demonstrating that his is a deliberate carelessness, independent of the means available.
Despite the album flowing wonderfully among delightful pop debris, it is difficult for me to get fully involved with these tracks; there are too many resonances with music already heard and, what’s worse, with elusive sounds: you never really know whom he's citing, and it causes, in those who've seen a lot come and go, a sense of frustration for being unable to categorize his sound once and for all. Could this be a deliberate effect? I certainly think so, Ariel Pink is to be taken as he is, or left.
"Before Today", rather than coming from obscure corners of the underground, draws from everywhere: from certain low-grade MTV videos or, better yet, Videomusic; from the most bland and flashy mainstream and the sappy AOR; it sets no limits, unearthing sounds from both new wave and English progressive rock.
This is how "Bright Lit Blue Skies" - the leading track - sounds like the Ramones transplanted in the "Girls Group '60s" era; "L'estat" is Canterbury school in Syd Barrett sauce as if composed by Burt Bacharach; "Fright Night (Nevermore)" - another good track - is bathtub pop that most closely resembles previous inventions from "House Arrest". On the less refined side, there's "Beverly Kills", z-grade disco music that not even the Vanzina brothers would use for their soundtracks; "Can't Hear My Eyes" is a sonic atrocity from the '70s ripped straight from "You Can Do Magic" by America. The intriguing "Butthouse Blondies", a melodic hard rock in the style of Boston or something similar, I don't know if it's related to the bed and breakfast or, which intrigues me more, with certain Californian VHS tapes that I know, the ones rented discreetly in the special compartment behind the curtain: from the background moans I would lean towards the second hypothesis. The last piece is "Revolution's a LIE" pure '80s English new wave, specifically the Comsat Angels of "Independence Day".
In conclusion, the album passes with good grades but also with a reservation: next time he needs to detach from indiscriminate revival and produce real music: all right, he's a genius but it's time he does something truly his own if he doesn't want to be quickly forgotten. The question is whether he is truly capable of doing so.
Tracklist and Videos
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