The 2kDozen 500: #285 - Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti, "Mature Themes"

I really liked the last album and its woozy take on a Valley FM AoR Seventies rock that never quite happened. But now I feel as though I've read a little much into it - as readers of this blog might not be surprised to see. This album sounds much thinner musically, lyrically and thematically. "Mature Themes" may be ironic, but a tune about being "a nympho/Down at the disco" just comes off as an eggy Zappa pastiche.

The trajectory of this album and the last is an unhappy echo of MGMT's journey from "Kids" to "Congratulations" - euphoria to stubborn quirk. But the MGMT guys did it so much more classier. That's how it seems for now anyway.

Some of the tunes are still in there ("Live It Up" for example sounds like an acceptable version of Dire Straits), but all in all, a wobbly lateral thumb verdict. Meh with touches of Dang.

Rating: Dribbling Softcockrock Wandering out of The Wrong SoCal Valleys