Taking Hold of Your "Guilty Pleasures" by Ran Pink : A Euphonixx Album Review
Guilty pleasure is a term used when something is not so good, but the individual loves it anyway. For instance ice cream could be a guilty pleasure, loving someone could be a guilty pleasure, reality shows I KNOW is a guilty pleasure for most of you. MUSIC, yes there are some Nickelback Fans out there, but Guilty Pleasures by Ran Pink does not fit into the category of guilty pleasures. This is Ran's second album 2 years after the release of his first album Therapy. Like Therapy, Guilty Pleasures takes Beatles-esque techniques from the more psychedelic rock songs, and The Beatles are Ran's inspiration when it comes to writing and performing his musical pieces.
Throughout the whole album you could tell that Ran is classically trained, especially through songs like Learn from the Wind, Innocence Inner Sense, and Figure 8, not only are the piano melodies beautiful it is kind of entrancing. For me it felt like it could be placed into a scene where someone falls into an enchanted forest or any scene with a fantasy element. The Deep Inside reminds me of the feeling that Strawberry Fields Forever gives me, which is laying in the field, feeling at peace, looking up at the sky, and just being taken away by the song plus the nature surrounding.
If you are searching within the album for the kind of music to give you that energy boost, Not Mad and Wild Child are just the songs that you are looking for. Wild Child is more instrumental and even though it sounds wild and crazy (fitting since the name of the song) it is still pleasantly composed to fit the elements of a rock song. The lyrics are heavily extorted that there is no making sense out what is being said. At first when I heard it I thought it was notes being played by an electric keyboard, but for some reason I am inserting my own lyrics into the song. I would love to hear if you, the reader, did the same thing. Mad Love gives off the Duran Duran vibe, where it is rock, it's electric, and it makes you sway and dance. It's the perfect song to start with because it includes the various techniques used throughout the album.
I like how this album changes from alternative rock, to rock, to psychedelic rock due to the titles and the stories of each song. Each song does bring a different feeling, nostalgia, relaxation, hype, and more. The fact that instruments such as piano and xylophones were used in different pieces gave these different type of rock songs a little more spice, since they are not used in alternative rock bands today. I do think though that the use of synths and other electronic effects could be downplayed, or at least not used in mostly every song, because sometimes I couldn't distinguish one song from another. Other than that this album is very well done! I hope you enjoy and would love to hear your thoughts on the album in the comments below!
Ran Pink is a grammy-nominated producer, multi-instrumentalist, and composer based in Los Angeles, California.
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