Pom Pom [LP]

by Ariel Pink

Overview

The first work attributed solely to Ariel Pink since the late 2000s and his first solo album, Pom Pom finds an uneasy balance between his early days and his later albums with Haunted Graffiti for 4AD. With slightly murkier production values than either Before Today or Mature Themes, the sprawling double album nods to Pink's home-recording days, but features a far wider cast of collaborators -- including Spiritualized's Jason Pierce and rock polymath Kim Fowley -- than any of his previous music. Similarly, these songs encompass some of his most engaging pop and some of his most aggressively weird music. While Pom Pom isn't as fragmented as the collections of his early work, the sides of Pink's music often feel polarized, especially compared to how well they complemented each other on Before Today and Mature Themes. The album's pop side might fare slightly better, at least on the first few listens: "Put Your Number in My Phone" may be even catchier than Before Today's "Round and Round" or Mature Themes' "Only in My Dreams" (and the fact that it appears a quarter of the way into Pom Pom suggests Pink is aiming for a disorienting listening experience), while "Dayzed Inn Daydreams" delivers more gauzy AM pop that sounds like it was channeled from the early '70s. Elsewhere, the breezily disturbing "Lipstick" could be an '80s new wave ballad written by Brian DePalma, and "Picture Me Gone" mixes mortality and technology into something equally witty and bittersweet. Some of Pom Pom's more overtly wacky tracks, like the novelty rock and musique concrete collision of "Dinosaur Carebears," take a while time to warm up to, and some, like "Exile on Frog Street," are just too long. However, for every song like these, there's a "White Freckles," a fine tip of the hat to Frank Zappa's legacy. Likewise, Pink's Fowley collaborations feel like the passing of the torch from one eccentric to another, whether it's "Plastic Raincoats in the Pig Parade"'s surreal sugar high, "Jell-O"'s whitebread satire, or the risque surf-pop of "Nude Beach a Go-Go" (Azealia Banks' version of the song on Broke with Expensive Taste was even more successful and surprising in context). Indeed, sex is never far away on a Pink album, and "Sexual Athletics"' mix of cartoonish lust and romantic longing feels like Mature Themes in a nutshell. Though the way Pink zigs and zags on Pom Pom can be dazzling or confusing depending on listeners' patience, in its own way it's one of the best representations of what makes his music fascinating and occasionally frustrating. ~ Heather Phares

Product Details

Release Date:	11/17/2014
Label:	4Ad
UPC:	0652637344011
Rank:	45094

Tracks

Disc 1

1. Plastic Raincoats In the Pig Parade
2. White Freckles
3. Four Shadows
4. Lipstick
5. Not Enough Violence
6. Put Your Number in My Phone
7. One Summer Night
8. Nude Beach a Go-Go
9. Goth Bomb
10. Dinosaur Carebears

Disc 2

11. Negativ Ed
12. Sexual Athletics
13. Jell-O
14. Black Ballerina
15. Picture Me Gone
16. Exile on Frog Street
17. Dayzed Inn Daydreams
18. Exile on Frog Street
19. Dayzed Inn Daydreams

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Ariel Pink   Primary Artist,Bass,Guitar,Vocals,Keyboards
Don Bolles   Drums,Guitar,Vocals (Background)
Jason Pierce   Guitar
Jimi Hey   Drums,Electric Flute
Justin Raisen   Guitar,Optigan
Jorge Elbrecht   Guitar,Vocals,Sampling,Synthesizer
Soko   Vocals
Joe Kennedy   Guitar,Synthesizer,Vocals (Background)
Ben Brown   Organ,Guitar,Violin,Vibraphone
Kenny Gilmore   Bass,Drums,Keyboards,Vocals (Background)
Cole Marsden Greif-Neill   Drums,Guitar
Piper Kaplan   Vocals
Shags Chamberlain   Bass,Vocals,Sequencing,Synthesizer
Alexander Brettin   Guitar (12 String)
Jack Name   Guitar,Vocals,Synthesizer
Ben Salomon   Vibraphone
Chloe Sykes   Vocals
Tim Kom   Drums,Vocals,Guitar (Bass)

Technical Credits

Kim Fowley   Writer,Composer
Chamberlain   Composer
Don Bolles   Writer,Harmony,Engineer
Phillip Haut   Engineer
Matt Fishbeck   Artwork,Drawing
David Ives   Mastering
Justin Raisen   Writer,Composer
Jorge Elbrecht   Writer,Composer
Joe Kennedy   Writer,Harmony,Composer
Samur Khouja   Engineer
Ben Brown   Arranger
Kenny Gilmore   Writer,Editing,Composer,Engineer
Ariel Pink   Artwork,Drawing,Composer,Lyricist,Producer,Additional Music
Cole Marsden Greif-Neill   Programming
Shags Chamberlain   Writer,Programming
Alex Kazemi   Writer
Dan Bolles   Composer
Linda Rosenberg   Photography
Mary Raisen   Writer,Composer