Performer Notes

Lyricist: Ariel Pink.
Personnel: Ariel Pink (vocals, guitar, keyboards); Jorge Elbrecht (vocals, guitar, synthesizer, sampler); Shags Chamberlain (vocals, synthesizer, programming); Tim Kom (vocals, bass guitar, drums); Soko , Piper Kaplan, Chloe Sykes (vocals); Ben Brown (guitar, violin, organ, vibraphone); Joe Kennedy (guitar, synthesizer, background vocals); Cole Marsden Greif-Neill (guitar, drums, programming); Don Bolles (guitar, drums, background vocals); Justin Raisen, Jason Pierce (guitar); Alexander Brettin (12-string guitar); Jimi Hey (electric flute, drums); Kenny Gilmore (keyboards, drums, background vocals); Ben Salomon (vibraphone).
Additional personnel: Jack Name (vocals, guitar, synthesizer).
Recording information: Greenpoint, The Escarpment (11/2013-07/2014); Jacks McCarthur (11/2013-07/2014); Joe's Downtown (11/2013-07/2014); Jorges Place, New York, NY (11/2013-07/2014); Kennys Garage (11/2013-07/2014); Seahorse Studio (11/2013-07/2014); The Sample Studio (11/2013-07/2014).
Editor: Kenny Gilmore.
Photographer: Linda Rosenberg.
Arranger: Ben Brown.
The first work attributed solely to Ariel Pink since the late 2000s and his first solo album, Pom Pom finds an uneasy balance between his early days and his later albums with Haunted Graffiti for 4AD. With slightly murkier production values than either Before Today or Mature Themes, the sprawling double album nods to Pink's home-recording days, but features a far wider cast of collaborators -- including Spiritualized's Jason Pierce and rock polymath Kim Fowley -- than any of his previous music. Similarly, these songs encompass some of his most engaging pop and some of his most aggressively weird music. While Pom Pom isn't as fragmented as the collections of his early work, the sides of Pink's music often feel polarized, especially compared to how well they complemented each other on Before Today and Mature Themes. The album's pop side might fare slightly better, at least on the first few listens: "Put Your Number in My Phone" may be even catchier than Before Today's "Round and Round" or Mature Themes' "Only in My Dreams" (and the fact that it appears a quarter of the way into Pom Pom suggests Pink is aiming for a disorienting listening experience), while "Dayzed Inn Daydreams" delivers more gauzy AM pop that sounds like it was channeled from the early '70s. Elsewhere, the breezily disturbing "Lipstick" could be an '80s new wave ballad written by Brian DePalma, and "Picture Me Gone" mixes mortality and technology into something equally witty and bittersweet. Some of Pom Pom's more overtly wacky tracks, like the novelty rock and musique concrte collision of "Dinosaur Carebears," take a while time to warm up to, and some, like "Exile on Frog Street," are just too long. However, for every song like these, there's a "White Freckles," a fine tip of the hat to Frank Zappa's legacy. Likewise, Pink's Fowley collaborations feel like the passing of the torch from one eccentric to another, whether it's "Plastic Raincoats in the Pig Parade"'s surreal sugar high, "Jell-O"'s whitebread satire, or the risqu surf-pop of "Nude Beach a Go-Go" (Azealia Banks' version of the song on Broke with Expensive Taste was even more successful and surprising in context). Indeed, sex is never far away on a Pink album, and "Sexual Athletics"' mix of cartoonish lust and romantic longing feels like Mature Themes in a nutshell. Though the way Pink zigs and zags on Pom Pom can be dazzling or confusing depending on listeners' patience, in its own way it's one of the best representations of what makes his music fascinating and occasionally frustrating. ~ Heather Phares

Professional Reviews

Rolling Stone - 3.5 stars out of 5 -- "Pink's music manages to be at once glossy and murky, absurd and natural -- pinging with ADD inventiveness from demented glam rock to lone-wolf disco to cartoon punk to zonked-out Sixties psych pop."

Spin - "[H]e's put together a record that's as full of unforgettably kaleidoscopic melodies as it is surreal shoutouts to Dolly Parton and Kurt Cobain -- POM POM is just about as beautiful of a mess as Pink himself."

CMJ - "Stylistic leaps are the defining characteristic of POM POM, and plenty are to be found in the album's fore-section..."

Paste (magazine) - "POM POM is probably the most accessible, easy-on-the-ear and enjoyable music of his career....Pink's bizarre humor, from a song about freckles to a song about jello, hits on the nostalgia, the absurdity and the vanilla nature of mainstream society with a keen eye to detail..."

Album: pom pom
#	Song Title		Time
1)	Plastic Raincoats in the Pig Parade	More Info...	0:03
2)	White Freckles	More Info...	0:02
3)	Four Shadows	More Info...	0:03
4)	Lipstick	More Info...	0:03
5)	Not Enough Violence	More Info...	0:06
6)	Put Your Number in My Phone	More Info...	0:03
7)	One Summer Night	More Info...	0:04
8)	Nude Beach a Go-go	More Info...	0:02
9)	Goth Bomb	More Info...	0:02
10)	Dinosaur Carebears	More Info...	0:05
11)	Negativ Ed	More Info...	0:03
12)	Sexual Athletics	More Info...	0:04
13)	Jell-O	More Info...	0:02
14)	Black Ballerina	More Info...	0:06
15)	Picture Me Gone	More Info...	0:05
16)	Exile On Frog Street	More Info...	0:04
17)	Dayzed Inn Daydreams	More Info...	0:05

Album: pom pom
#	Song Title		Time
1)	Plastic Raincoats in the Pig Parade	More Info...	0:03
2)	White Freckles	More Info...	0:02
3)	Four Shadows	More Info...	0:03
4)	Lipstick	More Info...	0:03
5)	Not Enough Violence	More Info...	0:06
6)	Put Your Number in My Phone	More Info...	0:03
7)	One Summer Night	More Info...	0:04
8)	Nude Beach a Go-go	More Info...	0:02
9)	Goth Bomb	More Info...	0:02
10)	Dinosaur Carebears	More Info...	0:05
11)	Negativ Ed	More Info...	0:03
12)	Sexual Athletics	More Info...	0:04
13)	Jell-O	More Info...	0:02
14)	Black Ballerina	More Info...	0:06
15)	Picture Me Gone	More Info...	0:05
16)	Exile On Frog Street	More Info...	0:04
17)	Dayzed Inn Daydreams	More Info...	0:05