'Worn Copy' was a muffled gem. Mr Pink recorded what seemed to be classic rock on the basest of matter. It was as if Todd Rundgren had dipped his master tapes into a sea of murk. The downgraded quality of the audio phonics held one at a distance from it's pop accessibility. A gas station radio pumping out meaningless pap through a gauze of grimed incomprehension. It inevitably went on too long, resembling a daft, manic kid showing off his latest magic trick. But still, what an idea, catchy tunes destroyed by pre-designed, wilful sludge. You felt like telling him to cut it out, joke's over, and that was, of course, entirely the point.
' I was a thinking 'bout hiring that Ariel Pink guy for the homecoming ball' Sue-Ellen Ewing told Alexis Carrington at the charity function. 'Damn you, he's mine' she replied. 'I've just signed him up for a million dollars.'
The re-runs. The Eighties have been soaked and saturated by a new generation. All that cheesed, banal 'liberation' butchered and left to hang out and dry by a stoned aesthetic. The hippies reincarnate, they were giggling at the woeful, selfish glitter, before deciding to reclaim it for themselves. Mr Pink was slightly ahead of the game, he watches it all, this knave of hearts, time to step forward, seek adoration, show them who's champ. Pass the Doritos, sip the Pepsi. 'Before Today' is a chance to reek in the hype. He stays true to himself, a taste of the tasteless, wedding party glitz with a glint of the bizarre. Another genre tomorrow, another revaluation, a cult artist continuing from where he took off. There is no great ambition on board to rock the boat, to marvel at musical expanse, the flatness is intentional and so is the gifted confusion-does he mean it? How is this meant to be accepted? Is he an outsider, the alien of paperback science-fiction decoding the irresistible shallowness of karaoke art? Or is he a smug, smart-ass for those in on the comedy? The layers of clouded interference on the 'merry-go-round' may have been erased, but the picture is no clearer. Perhaps, in some cases, a lack of artistic definition should be applauded.
