Album: Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti, Mature Themes (4AD)

Ariel Pink’s latest outing with his band finds him scaling the foothills of musical competence on tracks like “Farewell American Primitive” and “Only in My Dreams”.

But he reverts too readily to the adolescent scatology of earlier releases on spermobsessed, stream-of-consciousness drivel like “Kinski Assassin”, “Symphony of the Nymph” and “Is This the Best Spot?”. His band make half-hearted stabs at an authentic psychrock swirl, but lack the gutsy conviction to create compelling garage-rock. The results are simply irritating, in so many ways.

Download: Only in My Dreams; Farewell American Primitive; Live It Up