Mature Themes

Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 21, 2012)
• Original Release Date: 2012
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: 4ad Records
• ASIN: B008BBTVLE
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Music
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #60,383 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Kinski Assassin

2. Is This the Best Spot?

3. Mature Themes

4. Only In My Dreams

5. Driftwood

6. Early Birds of Babylon

7. Schnitzel Boogie

8. Symphony of the Nymph

9. Pink Slime

10. Farewell American Primitive

11. Live It Up

12. Nostradamus & Me

13. Baby

Editorial Reviews

Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti's Mature Themes is the band's second album for 4AD and the official follow-up to its 2010 breakthrough album, Before Today. "Sonically, it's comparable," Pink says of the 13 songs he's penned. "There are definitely not any links to my lo-fi origins. It's so diverse but so different from anything I've done before. In a sense, its really the record I wanted to make back when I made Before Today, but couldn't due to pressures and different factors."

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A Box Full of Ideas -- Most of Them Good August 21, 2012

By T. A. Daniel TOP 500 REVIEWER

Format:Audio CD

I've always felt like Robert Pollard (of Guided by Voices fame) and Ariel Pink had a few things in common: namely, their songwriting techniques. On his solo work, Pollard would crank out a ton of music, and it would range greatly in quality. Pink seems to have a similar process: these songs seem to be based on loose ideas, and some of them are fantastic while others are fall on their face. This "everything-and-the-kitchen-sink" process leads to some pretty uneven albums that are marked with some amazing highs and middling lows. Ariel Pink's Haunted Grafitti's new album, MATURE THEMES is a bit more consistent than the band's past releases.

Album opener "Kinski Assassin" MATURE THEMES off on the right foot -- it's a breezy, poppy, catchy tune with a sing-a-long chorus. It's the album's most immediately accessible track, and it gives way to "Is This the Best Spot," "Mature Themes," and "Only in My Dreams" and "Driftwood," making the album's first half prettyspectacular. "Only in My Dreams" in particular seems like it could serve as a hit for the album with its beach-based guitar riff and 80's production. The album ends with a cover of Donnie and Joe Emerson's "Baby;" it does double duty here as the album's lead single and the closing track. Pink sends the song into space and layers it with a distant coat of reverb -- it's a smooth track, and a pleasantly calm one on an album maddeningly full of ideas.

The album isn't without it's lows: "Schnitzel Boogie" feels slapped together; its stream-of-conscious subject matter and muffled production make its 4:35 running time feel twice as long. The track is followed with "Symphony of the Nymph," a track that finds the singer crooning "My name is Ariel, and I'm a nympho." The 1-2 punch of these two songs make MATURE THEMES stumble in its middle third. The penultimate track "Nostradamus & Me" also brings the album to a crawl -- it's spacey production and vocals never materialize to anything interesting. These handful of duds are bound to occur with a songwriter like Ariel Pink, but the rest of the album more than makes up for them.

While the album doesn't seem to have a runaway hit like "Round and Round," there are plenty of songs here that come pretty close. MATURE THEMES lives up to the reputation of Ariel Pink and his Haunted Grafitti band: it's largely a scattered, thrift-store glam, loose collection of ideas (some good, some not). As an album, it's decent enough, but the real joy comes in placing each of these songs by themselves out of the larger context of it all. Listeners who didn't enjoy BEFORE TODAY won't be assuaged over to the band's side here, but those that did are in for a treat. Essential songs to sample/download: "Kinski Assassin," "Only In My Dreams," and "Mature Themes."

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Perfetto, Andiamo! December 6, 2012

By J. Farrell

Format:Audio CD

Cheerful, ironic, heart felt and volatile at the same time. Far from being another chaotic post modern pastiche, this album is a true celebration of creative freedom and fierce risk taking. Granted it will filter out posers that got hooked on round and round's chorus only. If you got to the heart of matters of "before today", this is just as rewarding. To be honest, I find the first seven albums difficult to digest, but I think he has found a great sense of balance between the weird and the intelligible. If you don't pay enough attention you are bound to miss a lot of the subtleties and humor adult themes has to offer. Even the darkest, most repetitive tracks bear repeated listening and are a journey from start to end. They will resurface from the strangest places of your subjectivity and draw you to listen again. And discover, for example, that every time he chants the Houdini ostinato on Early Birds of Babylon he does it differently: displacing the phrasing, stuttering, intertwining with the distant organ line from every possible angle. Painting an organized, structured yet abstract piece of music. How does he do that? Ariel's music is often labeled as lo-fi, but if you listen to it on a decent sound system, the staggering depth of the soundscapes and compositional flight will leave little doubt that this is one of the finest albums of 2012.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Prepare for a trip September 29, 2012

By Big Creek

Format:MP3 Music|Amazon Verified Purchase

You have to listen to this album all the way through once. The album does not make sense unless you hear everything that it has to offer. It is a mix of the weird and wonderful, which hints at the introspective. You could look at this album a number of different ways but if you over think it or expect too much then you are not going to appreciate it.