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Pom Pom

Ariel Pink

Pom Pom

A double album of far-out psych rock from LA-based Ariel Marcus Rosenberg

ADM rating[?]

7.1

Label
4AD
UK Release date
17/11/2014
US Release date
17/11/2014
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  1. 9.0 |   Beardfood

    It's pastiche, it's retro, but above all it's a masterpiece
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  2. 8.8 |   Earbuddy

    A celebration of the strange and even the sentimental, and ultimately, it’s an album that goes the distance in being different from everything else out there
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  3. 8.8 |   Pitchfork

    You can interpret this as another surreal metaphor in his search for enchanted love or chalk it up to a teenaged fixation with the Doors ,maybe a little of both, he can be the frog prince, Shotgun Billy, or ride shotgun in a pink corvette
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  4. 8.3 |   A.V. Club

    A sweet spot between his ornate studio creations and off-the-cuff home recordings, aesthetically wacky at a level listeners haven’t heard from him since his nascent days, with bursts of both pathos and vulnerability
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  5. 8.0 |   NME

    A randy, touching and deeply strange 17-track adventure
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  6. 8.0 |   Spin

    Just about as beautiful of a mess as Pink himself
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  7. 8.0 |   Under The Radar

    Pom Pom would be intolerable if it didn't dare revel in the sublime ridiculousness of the cheap, tragically dated, and deeply sleazy
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  8. 8.0 |   Loud And Quiet

    Pink not only manages to shoehorn an impossible embarrassment of melodies into the album’s 69 minutes – aesthetically it covers a ridiculous amount of pop ground – but there is also a genuine emotional depth to this record
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  9. 8.0 |   PopMatters

    Up there with Ariel Pink's very best work, even if there’s nothing as insanely hooky as “Round and Round"
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  10. 8.0 |   No Ripcord

    If you don’t believe he’s a talented, chameleon-like force then the joke’s on you
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  11. 8.0 |   Drowned In Sound

    Ariel Pink has been readjusting our expectations for novelty for a decade now: Pom Pom could be his long overdue manifesto
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  12. 8.0 |   The Skinny

    Jubilant, exuberant and a hell of a lot of fun
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  13. 8.0 |   Uncut

    Few artists would dare put out anything so gleefully deranged. Print edition only

  14. 8.0 |   Q

    Within its exploded binliner of '80s FM rock licks, novelty squelch noises and other home-recorded debris, songs of splendour lurk

  15. 7.5 |   Pretty Much Amazing

    Ultimately frustrating for the same reasons so many of his colleagues are: he gathers textural and melodic tropes from all over pop music history, filters them through a smeared ‘80s aesthetic with some undeniable craft/texture evinced
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  16. 7.5 |   Consequence Of Sound

    The surreal, visceral experience in itself is where the fun lies
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  17. 7.0 |   Rolling Stone

    Pom Pom's knockout track is "Put Your Number in My Phone," a buttery slice of California guitar poetry and playa-listic arrogance that perfectly sums up the Pink magic
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  18. 7.0 |   FasterLouder

    What we typically seek out in this model of kaleidoscopic double album is an ambushing sense of surprise, and Pom Pom does achieve that over and over again
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  19. 7.0 |   All Music

    Though the way Pink zigs and zags on Pom Pom can be dazzling or confusing depending on listeners' patience, in its own way it's one of the best representations of what makes his music fascinating and occasionally frustrating
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  20. 7.0 |   Exclaim

    The first half or so of pom pom proves Ariel Pink is still a pretty formidable songwriter
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  21. 7.0 |   The Music

    At the end of the day, it lacks any substance or sincerity. Nevertheless, if you’re after some earworms to mix in your beetlejuice, pom pom is an entertaining listen
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  22. 6.9 |   Paste Magazine

    Probably the most accessible, easy-on-the-ear and enjoyable music of his career, without any asterisks
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  23. 6.5 |   The Line Of Best Fit

    It’s a very, very lengthy meander of a record dotted with visionary, tuneful highlights that occasionally make such a meandering, muggy trip well worth the lysergic trudge
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  24. 6.0 |   The Observer

    Pink has melody to burn, but the unevenness of Pom Pom is a stumbling block, even allowing leeway for lysergic non-linearity
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  25. 6.0 |   Mojo

    Uniquely inventive. Print edition only

  26. 6.0 |   Tiny Mix Tapes

    Essentially Mr. Ariel Rosenberg’s id, in pink, black, and red all over, this is about destabilizing the notion of having any solid, fixed perception of who and what Ariel Pink is
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  27. 4.0 |   DIY

    Overbearing and frustrating from the get go, it feels like he’s taking the piss
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  28. 4.0 |   The Guardian

    What Pom Pom seems to communicate most clearly is a kind of weird, smug contempt. It sounds like pop music made by someone who feels pop music is beneath him
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  29. 3.0 |   Crack

    Pom Pom’s fun and romance is drained by a conceited stretch of triviality and a growing realisation that, even if you are in on the joke, it’s just not that funny anymore
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  30. Back to main chart

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Ariel Pink: Pom Pom

  • Download full album for just £8.49
  • 1. Plastic Raincoats In The Pig Parade £0.89
  • 2. White Freckles £0.89
  • 3. Four Shadows £0.89
  • 4. Lipstick £0.89
  • 5. Not Enough Violence £0.89
  • 6. Put Your Number In My Phone £0.89
  • 7. One Summer Night £0.89
  • 8. Nude Beach A Go-Go £0.89
  • 9. Goth Bomb £0.89
  • 10. Dinosaur Carebears £0.89
  • 11. Negativ Ed £0.89
  • 12. Sexual Athletics £0.89
  • 13. Jell-o £0.89
  • 14. Black Ballerina £0.89
  • 15. Picture Me Gone £0.89
  • 16. Exile On Frog Street £0.89
  • 17. Dayzed Inn Daydreams £0.89
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Latest Reviews

Public Service Broadcasting  The Last Flight

The album closes with the absolutely haunting “Howland,” named for the island where Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, were supposed to stop to refuel. Clocking in at eight and a half minutes and ending with actual field recordings of the island itself, it’s a worthy and mournful ending to a tragic story Under The Radar

Kendrick Lamar  GNX

Burning down the industry with a reinvigorated competitive spirit Consequence Of Sound

Kim Deal  Nobody Loves You More

Sounds both like it could have been a long-lost session from 1996 and, somehow, perfectly of the moment Consequence Of Sound

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