Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - Mature Themes (CD, Vinyl LP)

Don’t be fooled by the title of this record for there are no stories of collecting your pension, free bus passes or tea dances. I was kind of expecting this album, (the band’s second for 4AD) to be more down a slicker polished route than their earlier lo-fi stuff, which at times it does but it manages to retain a healthy balance of their cooky eccentric style along with some really focused songwriting. Actually the title is kind of self referential with much of the album exploring love, like I guess most best pop music does.

Listening for the first time it’s easy to tell that this one is really gonna get it’s hooks in over repeated listens, as did their previous record. This is one of those albums where everything just seems in the right place, the band sound sweet as ever with the bassline’s particularly impressing me, while he shifts vocal styles from the sultry to occasionally sounding like some UK post punker or something. All said and done It’s top notch pop music. If you don’t own a record player and missed out on the vinyl only ‘Baby’ single then it’s included here along with ‘Only In My Dreams’.