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ariel pink's haunted graffiti - before today - 4ad - vinyl

New Copy

Genre: Wave / Pop / Rock - Pop

1. Round And Round
2. Hot Body Rub
3. Bright Lit Blue Skies
4. L'estat (acc. to the widow%u2019s maid)
5. Can't Hear My Eyes
6. Menopause Man
7. Little Wig
8. Fright Night (Nevermore)
9. Butt-House Blondies
10. Revolution's A Lie
11. Beverly Kills
12. Reminiscences

Before Today is supposed to be Ariel Pink's breakthrough album. Primarily that's because it was made in a real studio, paid for by a real label with real money – 'til now, all of his music has emerged from his bedroom, where'd he kneel to record albums like The Doldrums and House Arrest, much of the time playing ‘the drums’ with his mouth. These albums sounded like retreat into an own world – they were covered in a thick film of lo-fi noise hum and melodies were evasive, often flitting and strafing through that fuzz as if an infant was mad with control of a car's AM radio dial. Fortunately, they were also insanely good records – the extent of Pink's pop nous has been clear for a while now, and much of Before Today does sound like an unleashing of that particularly lead single Round and Round with its 10cc-recalling synths and bassline stolen from Sade's Hang On To Your Love. The album's highpoint arrives in its first bridge, as Ariel ‘answers the phone’ amid guitar waft that sounds like billowing net curtains on a hot summer's day. Other highlights arrive in the 70s Bowie funk snark of opener Hot Body Rub, Bright Lit Blue Skies' quietly euphoric pop radio charge, L'estat's synth whirl and Reminiscences' pleasant, aquatic drift. In fact, every track on this superb album is a winner – and, draped in the quiet glamour, fun and stateliness of bygone radio pop-rock, evidence that Ariel has emerged from his bedroom to exact his revenge on Hollywood's Hills.