beST arIEl pINk aLBum

no posts cause it's the hardest poll ever, RIGHT? yeah, i know

Shit, what's the hurry? This poll lasts for almost two years.

shit, he will make three more record by then!

mods, can you fix the date to 2013?

how the fuck did it become 3/2/2015?
lol

"Worn Copy" cos "Credit" is still my favorite song. Though I really liked the overall feel of "Before Today".

i like the delay for the closing date: it will give him the chance to make at least one more over produced post-punk dance anthem. "Revolution's a Lie" baybee

House arrest slightly over doldrums/lover boy/worn copy

underground kinda sucks

Ff/scared famous pretty good, not as consistent

Really love about half of before today.

Heard mature themes once, nothing stuck besides the "baby" song.

lol so "underground" was also released on 8track.

Worn Copy. I HATE House Arrest. Kinda don't know why, the rest of it is okay-to-really-good. But House Arrest just gets on my nerves.

Worn Copy's the only one I've heard that I really like a lot.

Doldrums all the way, bonafide classic

Mature Themes DUH, what r u people smoking

am i alone in thinking Mature Themes is leagues better than anything else he's ever done? love a lot of songs from before today, doldrums, worn copy, scared famous, but there's soooooooooooooooo many stone DUDS and filler and songs that go on too long. mature themes is such a pleasant punch in the gut, the songwriting and the sonics.

You won't be alone, but don't be suprised if you are the minority.

Mature Themes to me is, by far, their worst album. What you consider "filler" on the earlier albums isn't filler to me at all. Worn Copy, Doldrums, Scared Famous: they are stone cold classics to me. Before Today was a clear departure from that sound, creating a more accessible sound, more coherence in a shiny pop-way with hifi production (I think Doldrums is fully coherent, but I can see why you would not), and as an album itself it worked pretty great. But Mature Themes is stuck in between the fuzzy lofi-ness of the past, and the brilliance of Before Today. It is neither here nor there, to me.

IMO Mature Themes consolidates everything he did well previously. Before Today has some great material, but I feel like the voice is a bit lost beneath the relatively slick production. The way tracks on Mature Themes stand out in relief (different degrees of distortion, reverb, fidelity) makes it feel more alive. The title's irony is double-sided: there are the misogynistic/wacky lyrics, yet the album feels like the work of an artist who has regained a sense of his vision (if I can put it that way without being laughed off ILX) and perhaps found a certain comfort with himself. That's pretty much the narrative he gave in interviews (Before Today being a difficult album, this one going easier because he knew he needed to be in control), and it feels right to me. The material is gentler even as the scuzziness has increased (at least from BT).

So, basically I agree with spazzmatazz, though I like the earlier albums and sort of accept the "filler" for its solipsistic charms. I wonder if some of the attachment to the earlier records has to do with their greater overall melancholy and, I don't know, alternate hostility and neediness — maybe there's a striving there that might not seem as evident on MT.

The Doldrums and House Arrest are total classic, all killer no filler to me. First half of Loverboy is solid but the second half not as much. Before Today is great all the way through but never as good as the best moments of the earlier stuff imo. I don't really know the others well enough.

I would have to vote Doldrums because it's the first I heard and I already feel a sense of nostalgia for it. it's starting to ripen into complex multiple layers of nostalgic feelings for me.

I can't for the life of me figure out what people would consider filler on Doldrums.

I chose House Arrest. Those early CD-Rs are pretty incredible. He seems to have lost his "gift"; his new records are pretty charmless and I don't think it just has to do with the fact that I prefer the murky production, though that is part of it.

basically i disagree with spazzmatazz. the early records are insane, but in the best way possible. i don't look to ariel pink for consistency, although for a basement eccentric lo-fi dude he has a remarkable ear for melody. every night i die at miyagis is my favorite song by him: it's a super-pleasurable "ear worm" pop song that is "ruined" by these like, creepy racist asian impressions that are clearly funny only to ariel. i think that tension -- between being able to "get" ariel's aesthetic one second, and then the next second being sort of confused/scared by him -- that makes those albums true outsider classics.

It'll take me at least a year to figure out my vote in this poll.

think I'm going for doldrums, best of house arrest is concentrated in is 2nd half and it doesn't have as much of the whole "mind fog" sound

these albums are like chillwave-induced naps punctured by weird dreams.

creepy racist asian impressions that are clearly funny only to ariel

jamaican surely?

best of house arrest is concentrated in is 2nd half

??? first half, no?

..., no

I mean, it's all about "alisa", "Netherlands", "higher and higher","miyagis", "oceans of weep" for me

wow, first 8 songs of house arrest are my favorites. then it gets kind of weak starting with alisa, the people I'm not, etc.

xp

Oh forgot about "flying circles". That's one of his best.

and "Helen", of course

I mean they're all great. sounds like you prefer the slower ones, and I dig the goofy anthems like hardcore pops & getting high in the morning.

hmm online lyric sites say that it's "I chomp on punani bloody vagina" but I always heard it as "I champion for natty dready vagina".

but I guess he's doing a crazy gideon israeli accent?

i think its a conflation of a bunch of stuff - i think the "i crazy like idiot" part sounds asian to me -- but really it is just a nightmare foreign accent i guess.

i really hate hate that part

xposts yeah the 'lower key' stuff, anyway. "hardcore pops" is great, though. "Getting high"... don't like Ariel's noisier/less melodic stuff (lol geir) but great widescreen chorus.

"Netherlands" and "oceans of weep" have this semi-prog thing going on that's cool.

i like how that part ruins what would be one of the best/catchiest songs on the album. there is a sense where the early CD-R's are actually meant to seem "haunted" i think.

i think the "i crazy like idiot" part sounds asian to me -- but really it is just a nightmare foreign accent i guess.

it's "crazy like gideon" http://youtu.be/3hOHY2eEXOY

lol, so it's a kooky LA reference. cool, thanks

yeah, it was a long running series of local tv ads. the way ariel says gideon though always reminded me of the way a rastafarian would say it in one of those reggae songs about biblical shit.

"Every Night I Die..." would be the greatest song ever written if it wasn't for the "me feast on placenta" bit imo

The one time I heard it on the radio, they reversed the questionable language, like it was a gangsta rap record. Sounded good!

xpost yeah, i think the greatness of "every night", combined with how ruined it becomes with the "feast on placenta" part, is what makes it such a special track. i like how these early ariel pink albums pull you in and then alienate you; you think you are listen to (very good) nostalgic indie pop, you think you can wrap your head around it, but then...

It could be a great gbv song.

I think I like worn copy better than house arrest
I guess I prefer heavy and dark Pink upon light and funny

after "that" bit he says he's not usually this way, and he's okay so no need to worry about it. but it does happen every time that he tries.

As obnoxious as that part it, it is kind of amusing to imagine him actually going up to a group of drunken sorority girls at miyagi's and saying it.

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General Comment:Ok, "adjust"... that gives it an interestingly pop-sociological timbre... I heard 'the girls adjourn" and sometimes "the girl's a joke" or a "jerk" I wonder if he sings it the same every time? It's hard to tell when he insists on recording under a rusty old sheet-metal bathtub with a tribe of heat-addled rodentia for sound managers and latte-gophers.

This song may also have the interesting distinction of being the first in the pop genre to self-consciously blaspheme against Rastafarianism. Notice I said "self-consciously" so that leaves out Clapton's cover of "I Shot the Sheriff."
Flag amoebiuson February 18, 2008 Link
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hahaha
Flag Nick Tonicon October 06, 2009

http://www.songmeanings.net/songs/view/3530822107858687015/

the girls are jerks seems to make the most sense

it always sounded like "the girls adjourn" to me, which would make the most sense with the rhyme scheme. also, they're like dissipating "into the world", maybe, overwhelming the speaker who doesn't know how to speak to girls, or where to find them. when he gets the chance at miyagis... well, we see what happens.

hmm yeah now I can only hear it as adjourn

also it's funny, if he did mean it to be a rastafarian voice he should have used "I" instead of "me"

yeah i think it was the "me" that made me think he was doing an asian/some kind of non-native english speaker accent. also "miyagis".

scared famous quickly gaining track on mature themes

i recant everything i said about the earlier records. they ARE all killer no filler. now i have no idea what i would say, but at least mt will get one vote. in two years.

favorite ap moments? i'm obsessed with "let's go, BUST SOME CHAIRS NOW!!" at the beginning of hardcore pops are fun

I still feel like the genre should be called Hardcore Pops. And all those weak ass chillwavers who don't bring the hooks can gtfo.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

doldrums

Doldrums indeed

yeah it's the doldrums...

Shit, what's the hurry? This poll lasts for almost two years.

― Johnny Fever, Friday, April 26, 2013 4:16 PM (1 year ago)

FUCK, there's no time! see jfever, THIS is why we hurry

"every night i die at miyagis" is such an amazing song

Doldrums, for Let's Build A Campfire There alone.

someone in the main AP thread said he'll have a killer greatest hits someday. i feel like all the albums are pretty even. equal parts amazing songs, good songs, and relative crap. pretty easy to make a double LP greatest hits

u should compile all the good poppy ones from pre-before today

DOL<worn copy>DRUMS

i won't post a zip since all of these are culled from official releases, but this is the comp i'd make. 61 minutes

1. Hardcore Pops Are Fun
2. Immune to Emotion
3. Are You Gonna Look After My Boys? (Scared Famous mix)
4. Credit
5. Every Night I Die At Miyagis
6. Politely Declined
7. Among Dreams
8. For Kate I Wait
9. Baby Comes Around
10. Interesting Results
11. Didn't It Click?
12. Jules Lost His Jewels
13. Artifact
14. The Doldrums
15. Gray Sunset
16. Loverboy
17. Alisa
18. My Molly

Before Today because my friends play on "Hot Body Rub"

this is pretty a pretty solid "best of": http://www.discogs.com/Ariel-Pinks-Haunted-Graffiti-Grandes-Exitos-Greatest-Hits/release/1889798

thx spazz

ah shit - 19. "Good Kids Make Bad Grown Ups"

Doldrums ftw. Envelopes Another Day I'd add to that comp.

Doldrums ftw. Envelopes Another Day I'd add to that comp.

Agreed, that's probably my favourite AP song.

Worn Copy

worn copy's great. there's a pleasing anonymity behind it that doesn't really translate into his more polished later work, like finding an old, unmarked mixtape at a car-boot sale full of obscure pop songs you've never heard.

i would add 'life in LA' and 'the drummer' to spazzmatazz's playlist.

Voted Doldrums, fuck it. I've liked most everything else to some extend (Pom Pom excepted) but Doldrums was the one that hit me in the gut front to back.

Spazz I agree with at least some of your choices - others I don't quite remember now. I should revisit the catalogue.

worn copy's great. there's a pleasing anonymity behind it that doesn't really translate into his more polished later work, like finding an old, unmarked mixtape at a car-boot sale full of obscure pop songs you've never heard.

Seconded.
That was my first album of his - was (oddly) suggested to me as good study music at a time when I was a semi-recluse preparing for an important competition. I remember playing it on repeat just low enough not to distract me and whenever I'd perk up my ears I'd stumble into some killer hook.

house arrest

82 minutes. gun to my head i'd cut "The Drummer" (great song though)

1. Hardcore Pops Are Fun
2. Immune to Emotion
3. Are You Gonna Look After My Boys? (Scared Famous mix)
4. Credit
5. Every Night I Die At Miyagis
6. Politely Declined
7. Among Dreams
8. For Kate I Wait
9. Baby Comes Around
10. Interesting Results
11. Didn't It Click?
12. Jules Lost His Jewels
13. Artifact
14. Life in LA
15. The Doldrums
16. Gray Sunset
17. Envelopes Another Day
18. Good Kids Make Bad Grown Ups
19. The Drummer
20. Loverboy
21. Alisa
22. My Molly

actually i'd substitute "Getting High In the Morning" for "The Drummer"... gah I could do this all day

no 4ad tracks?

flopson asked for pre-before today tracks. i wanted to put the lo-fi version of "beverly kills" on there but i thought it would break format

I totally fuck with that compilation Spazz. Would only add Round & Round. Otherwise, it's p much flawless (but doing this from memory)

doldrums vs worn copy for me

http://i.imgur.com/1t0bd71.jpg

^^ my most played Ariel Pink songs according to last fm, from top to bottom

from an Aphex Twin thread:

The first track on "Selected Ambient Works 85-92" is, on a good day, the end result of the dialectic of all culture.
So, classic, yeah.

― Tim, Sunday, January 14, 2001 8:00 PM (14 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

exactly how i feel about "Are You Gonna Look After My Boys?"

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

i can't believe mature themes beat worn copy!

But just barely!

the three paw tracks records definitely have a consistent vibe - doldrums is super sad, house arrest is super pop, worn copy though...i'm not sure. it's just more evolved/developed as a whole. the 8 track production is a lot thicker & warmer too

how did you get that most played tracks list on last.fm?

Went to my library, sorted by tracks and artist iirc?

mature themes had some immediate appeal but wore thin pretty fast for me, i find it really grating now

Oh my bad-those are your most played tracks! Thanks!

mature themes had some immediate appeal but wore thin pretty fast for me, i find it really grating now

― marcos, Tuesday, February 3, 2015 10:54 AM (7 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

me too