Dedicated to Bobby Jameson is Ariel Pink’s first solo foray since 2014’s Pom Pom, and without using superlatives, Bobby matches Pink’s best left/right-of-centre pop moments.
Pink is writing better songs than people who are seen to be writing great songs right now. A play by play is unwarranted and will do Bobby no justice. But it’s worth mentioning that the title references a ‘60s L.A. musician who was chewed up and spat out by the music industry, thought to have died, then ‘reappeared’ in 2007 with a blog and YouTube channel. Of course.
Dedicated to Bobby Jameson and Bubblegum Dreams are standouts. They both feel like Pink’s take on The Beach Boys’ most fun, melodic, soda-swilling, Californian-pop numbers. Unfortunately, the excellent Do Yourself A Favor will one day be used in a directed-within-an-inch-of-its-life Wes Anderson scene and not heard for how beautiful it is.
In a year loaded with ripping neo-psych, lo-fi, and pop records, Dedicated to Bobby Jameson is one of the finest.
