Good day, ladies and gentlemen. Norman West, here with an album review. If you complain about how I write it, I thank you for taking me so seriously, but I'm just some random guy on the internet, and not a professional, so your complaining doesn't really matter.
The overarching theme of this era in recorded music sometimes seems to be disappointing blandness. In pop, white-bread artists like Justin Bieber are pushed on listeners, largely BECAUSE of their safety. Justin Bieber is a good, wholesome kid who stays on pitch without putting any feeling into his voice. Unfortunately, rock and metal aren't doing much better. The same people who complain about bland mainstream acts will often smother lifeless "rock" acts like Phoenix and Vampire Weekend with lavish praise. Metal, with some occasional exceptions, has produced largely the same repetitive, irritating sound from every band. The rhythm guitarist chugs exactly one chord until the chorus. The "singer" HAS no pitch, since he's just screeching. The drummer just beats on the double bass pedal with no actual rhythm. You might get a good guitar solo if you're lucky. Thankfully, Ariel Pink and his Haunted Graffiti deviate from the modern, tired robot sound, and proceed to make music sound sentient once again on their 2010 album, Before Today.
Just to begin, the album borrows the best elements of recorded music history. Songs like Bright Lit Blue Skies sound like they could be from the 60's or 70's, with light-hearted guitar chords. Songs like Butt-House Blondies and The Revolution's A Lie have a bit more of a 90's feeling, and if you squint your ears, you could compare them to heavier-sounding Nirvana. Hell, synth-heavy tracks like Fright Night (Nevermore) and Can't Hear My Eyes sound like a combination of 80's smooth jazz and modern indie.
And Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti does not at all hesitate to show off the musical abilities of ALL of its members, even if Ariel Pink is at the helm. Unlike some modern albums, the guitar isn't buried under several layers of synth. There are actually riffs in this album! Also, it's fucking refreshing to hear a guitar solo every once in a while, like in Butt-House Blondies. Even if the guitar were buried under the synth, the synth player isn't just playing chords in a repetitive rhythm. The track, Reminiscences, for example is a two-and-a-half minute long keyboard interlude which shows how alive the synth playing can sound. Even playing in the background, the synth in tracks like Beverly Kills provides an ecstatic, psychedelic atmosphere. And the bassist is a fucking BEAST. I don't need to provide any examples of tracks in which he's playing amazingly, since basically the whole album features his awesome bass abilities. Ariel Pink, himself, isn't a bad singer, either. He knows when to amp up the feeling, but he also knows when to chill out. He's neither overpowering nor underwhelming.
Rarely is there a moment on this album where the rhythm becomes choppy and repetitive. I absolutely despise when a band plays one chord in a series of quarter notes for several measures. It shows little creativity, and little motivation. Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti, on the other hand, plays around with unique rhythms on every track.
On a short side note, I also love how the song structures range from normal to unconventional. For example, Round and Round starts with an intro, goes to the verse, goes to a bridge, then the chorus, then the verse again, then a different bridge, ending on the chorus. I know this might not seem like anything spectacular, but when we're constantly bombarded with "Intro, verse, chorus, verse" with MAYBE a bridge in there somewhere, it's very refreshing to hear something different.
Despite the fact that it was largely unacknowledged, Before Today has the potential to be a savior of the music industry. When people want music to chill out to, this album provides that without sacrificing musical talent or variation. Before Today is the perfect representative for the glimmers of amazement that need to be encouraged in the doldrums of modern music.
Take it easy.
-Norman West
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