Ariel Pink (Ariel Marcus Rosenberg) decided to dedicate his eleventh studio album to unfortunate pop musician Bobby Jameson, which can be concluded from the album's title. Bobby Jameson was a pop artist of the 60s and 70s who made a decision to recede from the public eye due to mishaps and bad choices, so many of his friends thought he was dead. Over the period of two decades, Bobby was living in his family home, fighting his inner demons until he found out in 2003 that one of his records was reissued. After that, for the next ten years of his life, Jameson had a blog where he was writing about his life and he tried to get some financial compensation for the music he was creating decades ago. Bobby Jameson died in 2015 of consequences of aneurysm.
Ariel Pink's career is two decades old. In this time span, Ariel has been walking on the lines of glam rock and freak pop culture. I can say that he has the spirit of true eccentric rockstars of the 70s, such as Marc Bolan, Elton John and David Bowie were. What you can expect from Ariel Pink is that he will create whatever he wants to create and the result will almost certainly be different from anything that is trendy.
Although Ariel already had bigger success in his career than Bobby Jameson ever did, maybe he identified himself with the departed artist. They both carry a halo of struggling, misunderstood artist. This albums holds few beautiful, harmonious songs that captivate you from the go. Those are dream pop tracks Feels Like Heaven, Another Weekend and Bubblegum Dreams. The rest of the record offers you good jams If you are willing to dig for details. As a whole, the album is characterized by sagacious interplay of synth and guitar melodies. It won't take long for you to realize how perfectly arranged Time To Meet Your God and Dawn Patrol are. Simple, yet peculiar creations of brilliant mind.
Dedicated to Bobby Jameson is an infectious, twisted and vibrant album, just as you would expect from Ariel Pink.
