Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti – Before Today (2010)

Back in 2010 when this album came out, Helsinki-based music festival Flow was still mainly about providing a stage for promising new acts. Since then, it has just gotten bigger and bigger and now it's just a big festival with globally popular names. Back in the day, I used to listen through the mostly unknown listings of Flow Festival and make new discoveries. Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti was one of these bands. There was quite a lot of buzz around this band back then and a couple of years later. I listened to a few songs from this album and was sold, so I decided to buy the album as well to prepare myself for the gig. I wasn't really that impressed by the whole album, however. There are some really good songs on this album, but there are also songs that are so full of strange sounds that the original purpose of the album gets a bit lost.



This was also my feeling on the actual gig that I got to see at the festival. It was really difficult to grasp any of the individual songs. It all just sounded like a generic mass of sounds and there weren't any catchy hooks to hold on to. The interesting thing about this band is that most of their songs don't have choruses at all. They can have many different parts that just follow each other and they don't really return to those parts later on. This is maybe why I lost my interest almost altogether for this album for a long time. The only song I left on my iPod was Bright Lit Blue Skies, that in my opinion is the absolute highlight of the whole album.

Now that I'm listening to this album more than seven years later and my musical awareness is broader and I'm more open to different styles, I think I kind of like this album. I'm not too bothered about the same things I was back then. I mean, they are still absolutely true, but it just doesn't bother me that much. I've had a very similar reaction to the band Of Montreal. It was really difficult to get a grasp of them for a long time as well, but now I kind of like their chaotic psychedelia. Although, they were also brilliant live, which impacted my view on them, which was not the case with Ariel Pink.

For some reason, the beginning of the 2010's, in hindsight, looks like a time for Californian youth bands playing retro sounds and making music videos on hand held cameras while having fun on the beach. Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti is no exception. Their music video for Bright Lit Blue Skies is exactly what I just described. There's also a lot of just general fooling around in the park.

There are some other songs that really catch my attention now that I'm listening to this album years later. Strangely-named Butt-House Blondies is a fantastic psychedelia song with some heavier guitars.  Also, Fright Night (Nevermore) is an interesting song combining 80's style sharp synthesisers with laconic slacker rock vocals.

I think Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti is a really cool band and they have definitely found their unique sound, but I'm just not sure if I enjoy their music that much in the long run. It's certainly interesting, but I don't see if becoming a classic that I would return to years on end. Nevertheless, I'm glad I did return even just this time while making the blog, because my view of them got a lot more positive than what it was in my memories. This is why it's so great owning a vast record collection.

Listen to the album on Spotify.