Where bought? Something tells me that I got it through the 4AD website. I nearly sent it back because the centre hole was really tight and no amount of fashioning could get it to sit on the turntable. Seems to be fine now.
Real Arielheads know that, in a way, Before Today is kind of a joke played on the late adopters. Nearly every song here had existed in some form previously, often on an obscure rarities compilation or an off-hand moment buried deep within another track. By my estimation only the intro track and 'Fright Night (Nevermore)' are original compositions written for the album: seven are re-recorded excavations and two are covers.
To those late adopters (which I may be, given that I knew Ariel Pink in 2004 but didn't rate him) maybe they got the last laugh by not wading through hours of lo-fi grot to find the few key melodies.
In that case you get the big pop hit 'Round & Round' (which never was my favourite), the '60s cover 'Bright Lit Blue Skies', the off-kilter pop of 'Beverly Kills' and 'Can't Hear My Eyes', and the krautpastiche of 'Revolution's A Lie'. Basically, it's a survey of the genre grabs made before today resurrected, cleaned up, and reheated.
What interests me - and will be partially answered in future editions - if Rosenberg ended his lo-fi era in about 2004 and in 2010 simply served up old songs, then what did he do for six years? The answer is probably a bit more boring than I'd hoped.
Probably the APHG album to get first, but not the best one. Nonetheless, a keeper.
No comments:
Post a Comment