Album Review: Myths 002 [EP] by Ariel Pink

Myths 002 is the second release in a series of collaborative EPs spawned from the annual Marfa Myths festival, held in Marfa, Texas in association with nonprofit organization Ballroom Marfa and the Brooklyn-based Mexican Summer label. This volume brings together Ariel Pink and Weyes Blood (Natalie Mering), who have worked together before -- Mering sang on Pink's 2012 album Mature Themes, and both artists appeared together on albums by Mild High Club and Drugdealer. The EP contains four playful, eclectic songs that gleefully switch genres at will, displaying a sense of humor common to Pink's work but not always evident in Mering's.

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Round two of Mexican Summer's collaborative EP series is here, this time featuring Ariel Rosenberg (Ariel Pink) and Natalie Mering (Weyes Blood) for Myths 002 (the first was 2015's effort from Connan Mockasin and Devonté Hynes, aka Blood Orange).On Myths 002, nothing is as it seems. "Tears on Fire" starts off delightfully enough, with precious and sweet tinkling guitar and Rosenberg's sung-spoken lyrics, until Mering suddenly belts "ALL OF MY TEARS ON FIRE!" and a flip is switched from bucolic to chaotic. Myths continues this way, never allowing the listener to fully settle into the sweetness as one waits for Mering's roar to reappear.

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Ariel Pink is a misogynist; he’s not funny; he’s the worst thing ever; Ariel stinks. Paint him as provocateur and raging narcissist, but as the past few years have proven, he’s also a team player, down for boosting his friends and game for collaborations of all stripes. And so tapping him for the second installment of Mexican Summer’s Myths series seems like a no-brainer, especially since he’s worked with Weyes Blood’s Natalie Mering previously, her voice gracing “Early Birds of Babylon” on his 2012 album Mature Themes.

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This collaboration between Ariel Pink and Weyes Blood began back in March 2016 when the two shared a musical residency within the small desert city of Marfa, Texas, and has resulted in a four song EP rich with character. Ariel Pink may primarily be known for crafting stylized and psychedelically-touched pop, with Weyes Blood's offerings more cosmic folk orientated, but these US West Coast-based creatives have a past that has previously intertwined, with Mering having appeared as a vocalist on Pink's 2013 album Mature Themes. It should be a given that their coming together bears a result equally steeped in both of their past musical outpourings.

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