Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti: Mature Themes – review

LA-based singer-songwriter Ariel Pink is an undoubted talent, but all too often he appears to be treating his career as an exercise in self-sabotage. His second album for 4AD certainly has much to recommend it, with a scattershot approach to genres that defies easy pigeonholing. But for every beautifully realised moment – the gentle psychedelia of the title track, the Byrds-influenced Only in My Dreams or the lyrically opaque synth-pop of Kinski Assassin ("Suicide dumplings dropping testicle bombs", anyone?) – there's something as tediously throwaway as Schnitzel Boogie, which possesses all the discreet charm of halitosis. Ultimately it just makes for frustrating listening.