After years of torrential releases from the singer-songwriter trapped in the body of a punk, Ty Segall releases a self-titled album. Can he sustain the quality of his previous releases, or has this pace burnt him out?…
The answer is quite simply, a resounding success story. Segall may have been ubiquitous throughout the past decade, locked in a tour-studio cycle with either his ‘solo’ project or one of his several side projects such as GØGGS, with Charlie Moothart of Fuzz and Chris Saw of Ex-Cult.
It may be due to this constant, self-improving cycle that Segall has let go of some of his typical control in this most recent, and second self-titled, outing. He’s brought most of The Muggers, his live band for most of 2016 into the studio to harness their efforts as opposed to flying solo the whole way through. The impact is solely a positive one, whereas in previous albums the sound could be seen as fairly separate, in this latest venture, there’s no way to escape the full force of the band, and it lends an indisputably live feel to the album, whilst still retaining a clear and well-recorded feel.
Ty Segall’s 2nd eponymous release, and overall his 21,353rd studio album… probably.
The opening track, Break a Guitar, opens the album less like a starting pistol and more like a lobbed hand grenade. It blisters clean into a growling, howling guitar riff underlying Segall’s hard rock vocals and overconfidence, it states the tone for most of the album and does a fantastic job of it too. This savage, unadulterated, distorted style is carried over into The Only One. The distortion gets even more corrosive and the vocals follow suit, gaining more shouting and taking clear punk influences. Something evident in the screaming, dueling guitar solos played simultaneously, or indeed, against one another from Segall and his long time second guitarist Emmett Kelly, this duel is NOT your typical rock’n’roll affair. Seemingly not content to drop the pace into the following song, Mr. K is an absolute juggernaut. Rapid, staccato picking belies it hardcore undertones then, after a plainly confusing break, crescendos into an absolute cacophony as the band seem to compete for volume. If the song was not actually trying to emulate a bad trip, and Mr. K being the drug of choice, it may fall flat as a track choice, but coupled with its intention, Segall pulls it off.
There is ample proof that their abilities go far deeper than simply blasting raw, energetic sound however. Orange Colour Queen is sure to be a welcome reprieve for some, after the sheer force of some of the previous tracks (I’m looking at you, Mr. K) and was the first track ‘leaked’ by Segall. Due to this, the song may become more recognisable than the more numerous, throttle and thrash style tracks throughout the album and indeed, the rest of Segall’s releases. This is no tripping point however, the song is lazy, drifting ballad of heartache led by acoustic guitars and Segall’s now restrained, relaxed, warbling vocals. Talkin’ is another such track, lilting strums and softly picked strings draw us into the song that directly points to self-absorption with lyrics like ‘I think you’re talkin, talkin about yourself’. Take Care (To Comb Your Hair) follows this more relaxed theme as well, with Mikal Cronin, the band’s bassist joining in with Segall’s vocals, and soft strums, albeit the distorted fuzz of other tracks seeps into this song, seemingly uncontainable between track to track.
Whilst talent is undeniably present across the album, the most ambitious piece, undeniably comes from Warm Hands. An odyssey-length song clocking it at ten minutes begins with bluesy chords and slides and soon degenerates into a pulsing, snarling animal of a track, released pent-up aggression and energy through jam-session style solos and riffs as the song tells the dark tale of a young man, picked up and paid for at a bar. Papers is another track that breaks the mould of previous songs. With a clear and present Beatles influence from the psychedelic guitar and bass through to it’s odd, mysterious lyrics and heavier reliance on Ben Boye’s keyboard abilities.
As a whole, the album is nothing short of impressive. The production feels polished yet raw and it pulses with energy throughout, not allowing for a single weak track. It feels very similar to previous work done, but when caught in the aforementioned tour-album cycle, there is little downtime for the sound to evolve, but does it really need to?
To hear this fantastic album in the best way, arrange an appointment with your nearest Richer Sounds and take this track to 11 in the demo room.
Author: Steve, Southgate store
