Bolstered by lead single "Round and Round", which sounds for all the world like Frank Zappa covering Fleetwood Mac covering Michael Jackson, Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti's winning Before Today is a drugged out, glossy, AOR obsessed treat of a record that will likely be stumbling onto many year-end lists in the coming months. The lo-fi impresarios definitely made good on their hi-fi gambit. Today the former Animal Collective affiliates have unleashed the video for album highlight "Bright Lit Blue Skies", a blissfully psychedelic cover of the Rockin' Ramrods' obscure 1966 surf-rock nugget. If you thought a dollop of production value and studio sheen would make Ariel any less weird, just push play. Before Today is out today on 4AD Records.
