Ariel Pink's 4AD Graffitti

I like that Ariel Pink's on 4AD now. Don't know why. I guess the smears of sound that characterise the Ariel Pink sound seem to fit happily in the little snug recess of my brain that used to amaze over old 4AD record sleeves, wondering what the hazy girls in the 23 Envelope artwork would look like in the flesh, without the fuzz or the glaze or the soft focus...

Now, of course, I just have a tendency to impose soft focus on everything; not wanting to look too, er, clinically at the world, not intending for anything ever to have too much clarity, in case I turn into a worried Lancome or Oil of Olay model.

They didn't ask.

And Haunted Graffitti must have come from looking at the 23 Envelope typefaces mustn't it? I can't think of a better description for all those roccocco curls and skews and frazzled perspectives...

V23 was the visual representation of the mistaken empathy of many a young, earnest, overcoat-wearing, Mary Chain-haired carrier in the 80s... A visual poem, mirroring the scrawl at the back of your roughbook, mirroring the posh signature you're still trying to develop, in the hope that one day someone will ask you to write a cheque...

I'm glad Ariel Pink is on 4AD. I don't know why.