Before Today
Ariel Pink
2010
We often talk about whether an album is "good" or not, and rightly so. You enjoy good albums, you don't enjoy bad albums, and the whole point of listening to music is to enjoy yourself while you're doing so. But today I want to talk about what makes an album "memorable," which is a completely different metric.
In my mind, there are three scales to consider when talking about how memorable an album is. First, obviously, is how good the album is—talking about pure quality (which is subjective, but what isn't?). Second is how critically acclaimed it was at the time of release / still is, because the more critics that like it, the more press the album is going to get, and the more you're going to know about the album, and the bigger an external impression it's going to make. Third is the specific context in which you listened to this album when it was most prominent in your life—are these times that you can still remember and still connect to the listening of this album?
We can roughly chart all this on a triangle graph:
There are no numbers or quantities listed on the graph, because all three measurements are not quantifiable (I mean, you could assign numbers to them, but it would be guesswork anyway, so why bother). But the point of the graph is to show how memorable an album is. If the triangle is big and roughly equilateral, then the album is pretty memorable to you. If the triangle is misshapen, or maybe it's just really small, and the album has way less of a chance at being memorable to you, the music listener.
Before Today is a great example of an album that charts a big and beautiful triangle. Let's go through each.
How good is this album?
It's really fucking good. It's really weird, too, which I think adds to the appeal. Before Today gives you the same feeling that you'd get if you stumbled upon a hidden bar down a dark alleyway at one in the morning—the taps are flowing and everyone is cool, but something seems a little off, ya know? You can't put your finger on it, but you can feel it. Ariel Pink is so good at creating that type of music. This is his best.
The band runs through the gamut of left-of-center musical genres, and handle all with aplomb. The albums starts with a run that goes from surf rock ("Bright Lit Blue Skies") to '80s TV noir thriller theme songs ("Beverly Kills") to '60s proto-experimental ("Hot Body Rub"—think Lennon's "You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)"). There's popcorn-fare horror film scores ("Fright Night") rubbing up against hair metal pastiches (the hilariously named "Butt-House Blondies"). There's a nonsensical love ballad ("Can't Hear My Eyes"). There's a grimy tongue-in-cheek Lou Reed-esque song about a hermaphrodite ("Menopause Man"). There's a murder mystery ("L'estat").
Somehow, the whole is better than the sum of its parts. Even so, you can never really tell whether Ariel Pink is serious or joking. Are these different costumes to be tried on and discarded, or is Ariel Pink really this demented? It probably doesn't matter when everything is this fucking catchy.
Did critics like this album?
They really fucking did. At least, as far as I recall, the tastemakers were pretty crazy about it back in 2010 when it came out. I was still in a bit of a nascent period as far as being a music critic myself goes, so reading about this album on Pitchfork or whatever would've certainly been the only way it could've ended up on my radar (and to have it get such glowing reviews that I would SPEND MY OWN MONEY on it is crazy to consider).
Wikipedia has a list of the great album reviews that Before Today received. Pitchfork gave it a 9.0 (do they even give 9.0+ ratings out anymore?). Looking at albumoftheyear.org's round-up, however, and surprisingly Pitchfork's rating is the highest. Apparently it was only the 108th best-reviewed album that year. Maybe this speaks more to what I was reading back in 2010... I guess mainly Pitchfork.
Still, to my point, it seemed to me that the critics were all-in on this thing, because it was enough for me to get the album in the first place. "Round and Round" was the number one song of the year, right? Again, on Pitchfork, but still... (Alright, 2010 Joe, get a fucking life). And because it was a well-liked album, there were more articles written about it, and more opportunities to think about this album. It wasn't easy to forget about it.
Is there a sense of nostalgia tied to this album?
Of fucking course there is. The summer of 2010 was a summer of transition for me, and some of it was certainly tied to listening to Before Today in my mind. There are smaller moments that I can remember with stark clarity—for example, walking up Olney Ave. in the crushing North Philly summer heat on my way to Sara's off-campus house to pregame for an all-you-can-drink Camden Riversharks game (so much of this sentence screams "early 20s"), and just being absolutely baffled by "Menopause Man." Re-shelving books at the Connelly Library and jamming out to "Bright Lit Blue Skies." Sitting in the backyard in Rockledge with a Natty Light and letting the darkness and "Fright Night" complement each other perfectly.
But the summer of 2010 was important for one towering reason—it was the summer I fell in love with Pam. I am 99% positive that I included "Round and Round" on one of the mix CDs that I made her in the early goings. I am so positive of this fact because, just yesterday, while listening to this album to prepare to write about it, Pam walked in the door while "Round and Round" was playing, and she said, "I know this song, right?" This album is so memorable that even someone who wouldn't normally touch this shit with a ten-foot pole can hear a song and be brought back, even if they can't exactly put their finger on it.
So yes, we can chart the reasons why, and we can explain it in detail, but suffice it to say that Before Today is one of those albums I won't ever forget.
If this album sounds interesting, try this song: it's gotta be "Round and Round"
Stray Observations
- Okay, so I'm doing a little bit more research to flesh out these stray observations more than just "hur dur good album," and I'm finally looking at the tracklist on Wikipedia... apparently "Hot Body Rub" is the first song on the album? Have I been listening to the album in the wrong order this whole fucking time? Ugh, that hurts. I guess ignore what I said up above about "Bright Lit Blue Skies" being the opening tune.
- Is it worth bringing up some of Ariel Pink's past controversies? I suppose so, if only to justify his exclusion of "cancel culture." The most recent one that I can think of was when someone wrote on reddit that Pink groped a woman on stage. As it turns out, the woman in question was his girlfriend, and she indicated that it was absolutely consensual. A few years prior, there was a dust-up between him and Grimes, one in which neither sounded all that great. Then there was the time he was maced, but I'll be honest, I read the article about it three times and I still don't really understand what's going on here. My point being that perhaps Ariel Pink is an unsavory character, but that hasn't traditionally been enough for me to completely erase an artist from my life.
- Though I do wonder if all that was the reason why "Round and Round" didn't show up on too many end-of-decade lists. Or maybe it really was just Pitchfork beating that particular drum this whole time.
- ALBUM COVER: Gotta assume those are some of the band members standing there, as well as a ghost. Seems fitting for such a mysterious album.
- I should mention here that the artist was billed as "Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti," but eventually the send half of that cognomen was dropped. I usually retroactively refer to older albums by artists' newer names, but I can understand if you do it the other way.
- ALBUM NAME: A lot of the songs on this album are apparently reworkings of older songs before Ariel Pink signed onto a label. "Before Today" is a song off his album Odditties Sodomies Vol. 1.
- CHARTS AND AWARDS: No Billboard appearances or Grammy nominations for this album or its songs.
- PoYB HISTORY: It did, however, rank at #6 on 2010's Best Albums for this blog. (Also—it appears that I did not, in fact, use my own money to buy this album, but instead used a, iTunes gift card.) Looking at the Top 5 that year, a ranking of #6 sounds about right.
- I know that the conceit of "is this song memorable?" is kind of a cheat, and that I could've done that bit for any fucking album I write about. But like I've said multiple times already, it's really fucking hard to keep up with a daily blog when I'm at home most of the time. So this is what you get.
NEXT TIME: Beggars Banquet by the Rolling Stones
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