Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - Before Today

Following six years of churning out album after album of ultra-lo-fi pop, delinquent California native Ariel Pink has landed himself a deal with 4AD. If you wanted to be very smart about this, you could almost say that he and his Haunted Graffiti have finally come out of The Doldrums (the title of Pink’s bedroom-recorded 2004 LP) and onto the front pages of broadsheet weekend supplements. The 32 year-old has unwittingly seen himself hailed as godfather of the nascent chillwave scene, and in the week running up to its release, a full stream of Before Today was premiered on The Guardian and L.A. Times websites – a level of publicity he could surely only have dreamt of even this time last year. So it’s a good job that his debut long-player for his new label is such a solid effort; what’s even better is that, while it doesn’t quite represent the commercialisation of his music that some may have feared, it is by some distance his most accessible release to date, and should see his music finally reach a wider audience.

Compared to his previous output, Before Today sounds like it’s actually had some money spent on the recording: the keyboards sound clean, some of the harmonies sound like they’ve been lifted from a Super Furry Animals LP, and slick saxophone solos pop up throughout proceedings, often when you least expect them. Such unpredictability is one of Here Today’s main strengths – even after several listens, you’re never quite sure in what direction any given song might be heading. Indeed, Pink’s lack of ‘proper’ musical training means that his songs have always sounded surprising; take the stand-out cut here, the glorious lead single ‘Round And Round’. The song – a reworking of an older track entitled ‘Frontman/Hold On (I’m Coming)’ – opens with a rolling funky bassline underpinning echo chamber vocals, before a typically weird middle eight gives way to a gorgeous, swelling chorus which sounds like it’s being sung by a thousand people. It’s the song to play to anyone who’s never heard of Pink and his gang, and it’s nothing short of stunning. Other highlights include the ‘70s soft rock of ‘Can’t Hear My Eyes’ and the somewhat MGMTesque ‘Butt-House Blondies’.

Like his chums and former labelmates Animal Collective, Ariel Pink has managed to retain his own distinct sound while changing his approach to making music so it can reach a wider audience. With Before Today, he has become a Todd Rundgren for the Facebook generation - and the great thing is you get the feeling the best has yet to come.