Ariel Pink - pom pom

Pop's biggest oddball comes through with his strongest set of songs since the 00s.

Ariel Pink - "Picture Me Gone"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YS87mPfD_yI&feature=youtu.be Ariel Pink has just shared a fittingly chilling and tragic video for "Picture Me Gone," taken from his upcoming "solo debut" pom pom. The track might just be Ariel's most mature and moving track yet, expressing with commendable candor the anxiety and pressure that the prospect of starting a family makes him feel. The song's also one of his most frightening, dwelling on the matters of our ultimately ephemeral existences and our fading senses of sentimentality in the modern world. But none of that's anywhere near as disquieting as the latex Ariel mask that appears throughout the video...

pom pom is out November 18 via 4AD. If you're still an Ariel Pink skeptic, he also did a powerful rendition of "Picture Me Gone" recently with the PS22 Chorus that you might wanna check out. Find it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqQ_vR5qGpk

Ariel Pink - "Put Your Number In My Phone"

Lo-fi pop fans unite: There's a new Ariel Pink album on the way. HOORAY!

Yes, singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Ariel Pink is gearing up for another album release this November via 4AD. The title of this forthcoming album is pom pom, and this debut single from it has been paired with the oddity of a music video embedded above.

"Put Your Number In My Phone," is a catchy, blissful, and poetic love song where the protagonist desires a love interest's phone number in his mobile device. Vocally, Pink is his typically shy self, and there's even a cheesy phone recording that isn't to unlike the one here.

Being this is a love song, it's only fitting that the music video is loaded with awkward romantic rejections, which are experienced by Pink and his wheelchair-bound friend as they cruise the mall looking for fun and love. Need I also mention that Pink looks like a late 90s mall goth who just picked up a copy of Kid Rock's Devil Without A Cause? Yes, yes, I need say that.

Look for pom pom on November 17th.

tUnE-yArDs - "Wait for a Minute"

tUnE-yArDs’ Merrill Garbus is no stranger to bombastic, twisted, cacophonous, brazen pop songs that explode out of the speakers. She is no stranger to odd flourishes that sound at first out of place and then perfectly correct. The first single from her upcoming album Nikki Nack, “Water Fountain”, fit all of those signifiers more or less on point. This second track, “Wait for a Minute” feels like a slightly different beast (there's no "WOO-HA" to be found here).

The track rides a very simple groove, and has no hugely clever tricks up its sleeve. It is a tUnE-yArDs slow-jam, guided by Garbus’ most potent instrument: her expressive voice. By constructing a song that isn’t as knotted up as usual, she gives herself ample room to show off that wonderful instrument. There are still tenets of her sound that peak through here – check those so-damn-close-to-off-beat “huh” sounds she makes in the chorus – but it all congeals to produce a soft, infectious, and still a little off-beat song. Definitely looking forward to this one.

Nikki Nack beams down to Earth on May 6 via 4AD.

Future Islands - Singles

Synth pop outfit Future islands drops their most focused record yet, delivering one catchy, dramatically sung tune after another.

Future Islands - "Seasons (Waiting On You)"

Art pop three-piece Future Islands is preparing to drop a new album titled Singles in March, and here we have the video for Singles' first single, "Waiting on You (Seasons Change)." The visuals seem as though they'd be better suited to a piece of americana, but strangely, they do also fit the band's dewy new wave sound. Also, just such a phenomenal song - as affecting as it is infectious. Enjoy!

Singles is due out March 25 via 4AD.

Throwing Muses - "Sunray Venus"

You'll be forgiven for not remembering who Throwing Muses are. A group of young alternative rockers that released a few pretty good albums in the 80s and 90s on 4AD--the first U.S. band to be signed to that label, in fact)--today they are much less active. Lead singer/songwriter Kristin Hersh has released a long string of solo albums, which are definitely worth checking out--especially 1993's Hips and Makers--but the band has now decided to release Purgatory/Paradise. It's their first album of new material in about ten years. Dominated by double-tracked guitars, steady drums, and Hersh's definitive rasp, new song "Sunray Venus" is a great reintroduction to the band. The way Hersh delivers the line "Hell, I remember you" with so much curdling scorn is proof that neither she (nor her band) has lost their touch.

The 32-track (!) Purgatory/Paradise is out November 11 via It Books.

bEEdEEgEE - "Bricks"

Yesterday, Gang Gang Dance's Brian DeGraw announced his full-length solo debut, SUM/ONE, under the moniker bEEdEEgEE. To coincide with the announcement, he shared the track "Bricks," whose jagged synth patterns, colorful vocal samples, and warm, rising strings proffer one of the most insane beats you'll hear all year. Enjoy!

SUM/ONE is slated for release on December 3 via 4AD. Excitingly, it is set to have vocal contributions from Hot Chip's Alexis Taylor, CSS's Lovefoxxx, and naturally, Gang Gang Dance's Lizzi Bougatsos.