Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - Mature Themes

Although just about every genre of music (R.I.P. polka) is still alive and kicking thanks to the cross-experimentation and multiple-influence nature of today, it was something of a pleasant surprise to see that psychedelic rock remained dear to some band's hearts with the release of Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti band's debut album (as a band), Before Today. The record fused a love of music's weirdest moments and the band's own unique eccentricities excellently, and everything down to the lo-fi fuzz about it all felt like revisiting a favourite band.

Now L.A. man Ariel Pink's ninth album - the second with his concrete band of Haunted Graffiti - Mature Themes looks to build upon that largely sober and serious-faced eighth and shake it up a little.

The record opens with a kind of Iron Butterfly organ melody and lyrics about battleships, Sigmund Freud and the desire to fondle someone's arse in a jacuzzi - and 'Kinski Assassin' is about as thorough a debunk of one's own sense of self-importance as you can get. It's never alienating, though, and Pink's theatrical vocal makes it all the more entertaining. He goes on to chant "G spot, H bomb!" in opening 'Is this the Best Spot?', a brief explosion of squelching riffs and timewarps, before the title track suddenly offers a more romantic, heartfelt lyric. "I wanted to be good, baby" is the repeated motif, over a safe-as-you-like soft-rock instrumental, and there raises the question whether this is the put-on show rather than songs about testicle bombs. Single 'Only in My Dreams' only propagates the idea of the band as a 70s post-hippie revivalist unit, with lovely vocal harmonies, background sighs and a gorgeous riff.



The opening four may well portray the album as one of fine classic pop, but with 'Driftwood' comes a whole host of different influences and experimentations: vocals are muttered and often incoherent, but recollect for the very Nick Cave chorus. On the 'Early Birds of Babylon' the bassline is choppy and darker, accentuated by the monastic background voices. There then comes the song title everyone's been waiting for - 'Schnitzel Boogie', a kind of bastard child of Frank Zappa and Gary Glitter that's more a wall of distortion and feedback than anything, and is one of the album's few challenging listens; at one point Pink even orders a burger. The weird only goes up from here: 'Symphony of the Nymph' takes on a half-confessional, half-horror storytelling mantle. "I can't get enough of those bitches!" is ached out in amongst gunshots and howls, and it's far and away one of the more entertaining listens (if only at a Robert Rodriguez what the fuck? level).

The radio jingle-like 'Pink Slime' perhaps a little too forcibly attempts to put across its weirdness, but boasts some rather wonderful synths and vibes. The profanity-laden 'Farewell American Primitive' reads like the Beach Boys entering the Willy Wonka chocolate tunnel, and quite a bumpy, oddly serene ride it is. The jangly and irreverent sounds that dominate much of the album find no chirpier a melody than that of 'Live it Up'; almost festive in its use of chimes and uptempo rhythm. Yet, even with all of these solid arguments for the Haunted Graffiti's knack of a nice pop song, all such strengths seem meaningless when faced with the 7:25 epic 'Nostradamus & Me', a kind of classic Pink Floyd track taken for a hugely drawn-out chill (there're even breathing noises). We're left to close, though, with a cover of the Donnie and Joe Emerson smooth-fest 'Baby', and it's a pretty faithful cover.

Sadly Mature Themes never quite reaches the stylistic heights that is Before Today thanks to some too silly moments but the remnants of that whole kind of high-budgeted, fully realised project are mercifully left standing; Mature Themes might be silly at times but the fun moments are just that, great fun, and its experimental sides are still no less interesting or psychedelic. It may be an obvious attempt to regain cult status, but whether or not that's successful, it's a solid and highly enjoyable record.

Rating: 8/10
Highlights: Only in my Dreams, Nostradamus & Me, Driftwood, Kinski Assassin, Symphony of the Nymph
Avoid: Pink Slime, Schnitzel Boogie

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