Album Review: Ariel Pink Makes Us All Dedicated To Bobby Jameson
Ariel Pink has left critics torn. Why? Because he goes for the weird! Dedicated to Bobby Jameson should be no different. The album’s title makes a direct and heartfelt reference to a real-life L.A. musician, long presumed dead, who resurfaced online in 2007, after 35 reclusive years, to pen his autobiography and tragic life story in a series of blogs and YouTube tirades Yes, that may seem like a strange inspiration, but Ariel Pink goes for the strange and makes it pop.
What I love about Ariel Pink’s Bobby Jameson is that, once you know the inspiration, you grow fascinated with the execution. Propulsive, lo-fi chords fizzle into songs like, “Death Patrol”, “Kitchen Witch”, and “Dreamdate Narcissist” to bubble over the nihilism and self-loathing of Bobby Jameson and Ariel Pink. Known as “the godfather of chillwave” and the face of the emergent genre of Hypnagogic Pop, Pink has crafted his compositions/lyricism around the idea that life is a lexicon of love and fear. Every song on Dedicated To Bobby Jameson can be dwindled down to these two sentiments. From “Time To Meet God” or “I Wanna Be Young”, Fear seems to grasp instrumentals and verse to shake them for their humanity and foolish desire to be confident. Meanwhile, “Bubblegum Dreams” and “Time To Live” make Love appear like a grand delusion that you do not know whether to full trust. The irony is that he makes Love and Fear feel like they are permanently linked in things you do not trust because both have held you back. From “Dedicated To Bobby Jameson” to “Do Yourself A Favor”, Pink plays with his voice to sound like, in essence, a freak or genius, which can be interchangeable.
Pink twists and dabbles his vocals as if he were a voice-over actor for a series of different cartoons, which makes hims sound both deluded and euphoric. He wants to be the eccentric that shocks and raves over sentiments because that is who Bobby Jameson would want him to be. The result is an album you both love and feel dumb-founded by because it truly is like nothing you have heard before. Yet, more importantly, its “Twin Peaks” vibe is a doorway for a much more emotional record than appears. Beneath its layers of sci-fi meets rock n’ roll horror, is a diary into the soul of someone who is dangerously/ intelligently aware of humanity but unsure of himself, which breeds an insecurity we can all relate to. For More Information On Ariel And To Buy Dedicated to Bobby Jameson on September 15 Click Here.
