Album Review: Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - Mature Themes

2010's Before Today instantly elevated Ariel Pink from lo-fi obscurity to international recognition, but there never seemed to be much question as to how he would follow it up. It was hard to imagine the bizarre Pink attempting to capitalise on his newfound popularity, but it was easier to predict the impending weirdness of a new album destined to polarise the same audience won over by his previous effort. Mature Themes well and truly lives up to that expectation, with mixed results.

Pink's career up until this point has been built on kitsch; fragments of retro quirkiness and AM radio pop that often threatens to usurp his material without ever quite going the distance. Mature Themes, however, finally lets the weirdo factor come out on top, seemingly at the expense of the genius ideas that made earlier albums so great. The opening two tracks, Kinski Assassin and Is This The Best Spot? are awful, and it's not the shambolic feel that drags them down so much as the gimmicky factor. The inane lyrics and dissonant synth lines are telling of a forced zaniness that afflicts the entire album; musical attention seeking that aims for sheer originality but ends up sounding stupid. Tracks such as Schnitzel Boogie almost transcend their weirdness in a James Ferraro sort of way, but there's still the sense that the band are self-consciously dressing up mediocre songs in funny costumes. They're at their best when they pare things back a little, as evidenced by the stellar lead single of Only In My Dreams and the odd but dreamy Symphony Of The Nymph. It just goes to show that wacky exhibitionism, although it constitutes a large part of the band's appeal, falls flat without Pink's signature pop brilliance to back it up.