Pom Pom (studio album) by Ariel Pink

"Pom Pom" is an oddball hodgepodge of styles. Over the course of the album songs will change instrumentals and genres at a whim. Interlaced through are some spectacular songs. My personal favorite track is "Lipstick", a synth goth track told through the eyes of a murderer. The downside to these changes are a lot of the songs feel like novelties.

What if Frank Zappa, the Beatles and the Stooges decided to make an album in the 2010's?

From teague 07/26/2020 01:37

Lots of fun songwriting and energy to be enjoyed on Pom Pom. A vast array of subgenres are represented here, each carefully place within the context of the album.

Great album, each songs are different and have catchy hook.

I'd be hard-pressed to say this isn't a top 10 album of the decade. Completely absurd yet incredibly accessible and intoxicating. This album is unlike anything I've ever heard before and although it is long, almost all of the songs are highly entertaining.

Favorite Tracks: Lipstick, Not Enough Violence, Black Ballerina, Dayzed Inn Daydreams

From buzzdainer 10/12/2019 19:17

Pom Pom is absolutely one of 2014's strangest albums. I remain a little on the fence as to whether or not it's one of the year's best. In its favor I'll say it succeeds utterly in busting down any notion of musical genre, residing somewhere in the ambiguous terrain carved out by the likes of Frank Zappa in the 1970s. At its best Pom Pom is campy, funny, bizarre, and oddly mesmerizing. Then again, it's also obnoxious at times, with a kind of smirking irony that I find generally distasteful. The fact that you're seeing it appear in my 2014 chart is indication that I've tentatively come down on the side of finding it more a valuable contribution than a detraction, but I'll also confess that five years later I'm still chewing on it but not quite able to digest it. A polarizing album that still leaves me unsure which pole I'm drawn to.

I can't think of another album that feels so throwaway and yet so masterful. The record on which Pink flamboyantly flaunts the daft hand with which he can manipulate any style to his whim, crafting gorgeously infectious hooks with liberal abandon. Even the arguable run of filler from Goth Bomb through to Jello is a masterclass in songcraft. An affectionate pastiche of so many overlooked sects of pop music history, packed to the brim with genius melodies and arrangements.

Fucking fantastic. This record is equal-parts frightening, beautiful, catchy, and ridiculous. It packs in more crazy turns-of-style than I've perhaps ever heard from a record and yet pulls it all off.

Favorite Tracks: Put Your Number In My Phone, Dayzed Inn Daydreams, Not Enough Violence, One Summer Night, Lipstick, White Freckles

Always ignored Ariel Pink, no idea why. Then 'Dazed Inn Daydreams' came on in the car, and now I'm feeling a bit stupid. First take was that this is a smidge hit and miss, but the hits are bloody great...

From Komorebi-D 02/24/2017 12:32

Listened for the second time today & I forgot how damn near perfect this thing is. Totally one of the better records of the year.