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Album Review
ARIEL PINK’S HAUNTED GRAFFITI – BEFORE TODAY
Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti
Before Today
[4ad]
8/10


Ariel ‘Pink’ Rosenberg is back, again, with his twelfth studio album and he’s brought the ghoulish group of Haunted Graffiti with him. Sticking to his freak-folk roots, this Angeleno has recorded and produced (with a little help from Sunny Levine) himself an indie-folk album slathered in retro quirks and funky bass lines. With the amount of synthesized organ there is here it’s like a medley of adverts from the seventies. When the ethereal mixed harmonies of ‘Round and Round’ kick in they could be promoting a new detergent before cutting to the seedy cop show on next, which ‘Beverly Kills’ provides the intro for as sirens blare over a ‘Thriller’-tinted brassy synth and character voiceovers overlap each other. ‘Butt-House Blondies’ provides the glam-rock with swirling guitars and the fuzz whacked up, while ‘Menopause Man’ slows right down, takes a simple walking bass line and Pink’s melancholy vocals growl over the top. It’s a real pic’n’mix that gets the tongue frothing to try all the flavours of ‘Before Today’.

By D. K. Goldstein


ZOMBY – NOTHING
Nothing
[4AD]
6/10

Your worst fears about ‘Nothing’ are probably right. The late-year, post-album extended-play sounds like the runoff of a few constructions that didn’t make the cut for ‘Dedication’.

MILAGRES – GLOWING MOUTH
Glowing Mouth
[Memphis Industries]
3/10

Milagres are a Brooklyn-based quintet fronted by a certain Kyle Wilson, whose soaring vocal style sits somewhere between Thom Yorke and Chris Keating of Yeasayer.

FOE – BAD DREAM HOTLINE
Bad Dream Hotline
[Vertigo]
6/10

On first encounter, ‘Bad Dream Hotline’ is your standard emo-goth release – black on black cover art, tracks called things like ‘A Handsome Stranger Called Death’ and ‘Dance & Weep’.

STANDAR FARE – OUTS OF SIGHT, OUT OF TOWN
Out of Sight, Out of Town
[Melodic]
3/10

‘Out of Sight, Out of Town’ is an album that concerns itself, in the main, with casual sex.

LA VAMPIRES – SO UNREAL
So Unreal
[Not Not Fun]
8/10

When LA Vampires first released ‘So Unreal’ on a limited vinyl run in 2010 it sold out in a flash, perhaps because of its superbly kitsch artwork by Spencer Longo.

DAN MANGAN – OH FORTUNE
Oh Fortune
[Merge]
8/10

Dan Mangan is a husky-voiced, melancholic Canadian singer-songwriter who does all the things you expect husky-voiced, melancholic Canadian singer-songwriters to do.

FAVOURITE SONS – THE GREAT DEAL OF LOVE
The Great Deal of Love
[Low Rent]
7/10

Favourite Sons is the most recent project of Ken Griffin, formerly of nineties outfits Rollerskate Skinny and Kid Silver.

FRANK ALPINE – FRANK ALPINE
Frank Alpine
[Weird]
7/10

Synth enthusiasts must have been veritably jumping with joy of late (would a synth enthusiast do that sort of thing?).

MARK SULTAN – WHATEVER I WANT, WHENEVER I WANT
Whatever I Want, Whenever I Want
[In The Red]
6/10

A long lasting member of the American garage rock scene since the late Eighties, Mark Sultan has cooked up a hotpot of a new album.

THE SOUND OF ARROWS – VOYAGE
Voyage
[Low Rent]
5/10

Some very big noises are being made in the mainstream press over this Swedish duo, and their calculated pop sensibilities go a long way to explaining that.