Dedicated To Bobby Jameson (Colored Vinyl)＜限定盤＞

USインディ界の奇才=アリエル・ピンク、3年ぶりとなる待望の新作完成!ピッチフォークでBest New Music(8.8点)獲得した前作に続き注目される新作は、実在したLAのミュージシャン=ボビー・ジェームソンに捧げられた傑作!!
アリエル・ピンクのソロ名義で2作目となる作品。タイトル通り、題材となっているのは、1960年代前半に活躍したシンガー・ソングライター=ボビー・ジェームソン。ザ・ローリング・ストーンズやフランク・ザッパともコラボしていた絶頂期にドラッグに溺れ、音楽界から転落、35年に及ぶ隠遁生活を経て、自らの悲劇的な人生の物語を語った2007年の自叙伝に心揺さぶられたアリエル・ピンクは彼に捧げるアルバムを制作しようと決心。ポップ・ウィザードとしてその天才的な才能をもったアリエル・ピンクが自身のルーツである"ベッドルーム"に帰還、また新たな金字塔を完成させた。

Ariel Pink followed Pom Pom -- a wild album even by his standards -- with a set of songs inspired by an artist who defined outsider status. For a few years in the '60s, Bobby Jameson was a fixture of L.A.'s psych-rock scene before dropping out due to mental health and substance issues, then reemerged in the late 2000s to share his thoughts on life and the music industry on his blog and YouTube channel until his death in 2015. He proves to be a potent muse for Pink on Dedicated to Bobby Jameson, an album that gives a little more shape to the themes of wish fulfillment, disappointment, and mortality that he's explored over the years. In a sense, the album sees Pink reclaiming some of his own outsider status: It appeared on Mexican Summer instead of 4AD, the home of some of his most popular albums, and it returns to the murky sound of his earlier work, which Pink uses as an expression of Jameson's past and his own. The title track's moody verses and bright, shiny choruses reflect L.A.'s duality, while the similarly quixotic psych-pop of "Dreamdate Narcissist" falls somewhere between the Strawberry Alarm Clock and the Electric Prunes. As amusing as impish takes on matters of the afterlife and death like "Time to Meet Your God," "Time to Live," and the Zappa-esque "Death Patrol" are, Dedicated to Bobby Jameson's subtler subversions are among its best. On songs like "Feels Like Heaven" and "Bubblegum Dreams," Pink delivers candy-coated pop fantasies with ironic cores, while "Another Weekend" and "I Wanna Be Young" use slightly decaying soft rock to convey their strangely poignant wish fulfillment. Of course, it wouldn't be an Ariel Pink album with too many limitations, even though the obvious path to success would mean cutting oddities like "Santa's in the Closet" and "Acting," a collaboration with Dam-Funk that sounds like every word has quotation marks around it. Regardless, Dedicated to Bobby Jameson is a weird, catchy, thought-provoking celebration of individuality that offers one Pink's most appealing balances of sugary accessibility and irreverent indulgence. ~ Heather Phares

LA随一の変態クリエイターとでも呼ぶべきアリエル・ピンク。60年代初頭に活躍した地元の知られざる音楽家、ボビー・ジェイムソンに捧げられたこのソロ2作目では宅録に回帰している。諧謔と哄笑にまみれたギミック過剰な演奏が予測不能の展開を繰り広げていくなか、歌メロ自体はキャッチーでメロウなのがミソ。毒々しいのについベロベロ舐めたくなる妖しい色のキャンディーの如き、甘く危険なジャンク・ポップの逸品だ。
bounce (C)北爪啓之