Although this record is a compilation of 12" singles and unreleased tracks, that should do little to dissuade anyone from conceiving of it as an album. Released on Kieran Hebden's own Text imprint (which has seen little activity until recently), Pink carries with it the indelible stamp of a Hebden release, with all the affects and nuance that name suggests. That it was culled from entirely different releases but still fits together is a testament to Four Tet's unique musical identity.
Pink opens with "Locked," one of its strongest moments and a connective song between Kieran's old work and his current dancefloor friendly material. While every Four Tet album is different in some way, a track like this emphasizes the similarities which define his sound: expressive clattering percussion, string harmonics, deep processed bass, and a calculated use of empty space. From there, Pink moves to more specialized territory.
"Lion" is clipped, drony, full of staccato beats and minor homages to minimal and classic house. "Jupiters" is subtractive, an arpeggiated melody and circular polyrhythms playing respective solos before overlapping in the song's conclusion with help from a sampled voice. "128 Harps" also uses a clipped voice sample, whose presence demands constant attention while the wavering bass and descending harp notes carry on around it. "Peace For Earth" is probably one of Four Tet's more indulgent moments, Pink's longest song and a snareless amalgamation of skittering melodic loops similar to something you would get out of those "Tone Matrix" programs available online. It is the only song that is not explicitly dancy, but it serves as a nice counterpoint in context. Formerly unreleased, its inclusion can't help but seem like a deliberate move to flesh out Pink as an album, with sequencing and forethought.
The album is not without its weak moments—the song "Pyramid" in particular seems like a lesser summation of all the other songs' best elements—but it remains true to Hebden's signature style throughout, which means everything here retains the pastoral and emotional significance present on past records like There Is Love In You and Rounds. It's not as strong an effort as either of those, and it is less of a statement due to its omission of interludes and the lack of a unifying concept. But everything here works better on an album than as singles. Even when the songs head uncertainly for genre imitation or rote exercises, Kieran's ear for songcraft saves them from cliché.
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