Since his first self-titled album came out in 2007, Ty Segall has graduated from being a kid drummer/guitarist/vocalist making great, experimental, garage music to becoming a legendary garage/psych rock icon. His participation in many side projects, as well as his track record of putting out at least one album per year for the last 10 years, has put him at the top of the food chain in his field.
One of Ty’s best qualities is his ability to maintain a distinctive sound that runs throughout each song on every album he makes, while still developing a creative, fresh tone. He participated in the creation of two albums last year, both through sidebands of his.
“Emotional Mugger” was created by him and his garage-rock super band, Ty Segall and The Muggers, and it contained a slew of garage-rock legends of our modern epoch: Cory Hanson, Mikal Cronin, King Tuff, Emmett Kelly, Charles Moothart, and Evan Burrows.
His other 2016 effort was a heavy noise/punk rock album called “GøGGS,” by the band Gøggs. Believe it or not, this album had the song “GøGGS” on it as well (you could listen to “GøGGS” off the album “GøGGS” by Gøggs).
Both his 2016 albums were incredible, but they each felt like concept albums rather than authentic “Ty Segall” records. In other words, they didn’t sharply illustrate Segall’s musical persona the way some of the records he’s put out on his own have.
Segall put out a single, “Orange Color Queen,” in Nov. 2016, which had retro sounding, acoustic tones throughout. Incredibly catchy, softer than the music he’d produced earlier in 2016, and beautiful lyrically, the new mind space Segall was generating with this new single impressed me.
So when Segall announced he’d be releasing his second self-titled record for the 10th anniversary of his first one, I became giddy with excitement. I had a feeling that with his new self-titled album, I’d be getting the parts of the old Segall records I loved early on, with better production quality only experienced musicians can achieve.
When “Ty Segall” 2017 edition dropped, I was stoked to make the determining realization that my prediction had been spot on. The album felt more like Segall’s journey than his other recent albums had. Rather than being one album with the same thematic assertions throughout, this new self-titled album was a curation of different types of Segall’s music collected into one space.
The album opens with the second single released prior to the entire album’s release, “Break a Guitar,” which I would identify as a classic Segall track based on his recent trends in the last few years: marked by distorted guitar, solos that make you quiver, intense drums, and loud, layered vocals. This seems like a transition piece from the somewhat hardcore music he’s been focusing on the last few years with Gøggs, The Muggers, and Fuzz, another heavy side project of his (which he plays intricate drums and sings for).
Moving forward from this song, Segall breaks away from his recent trends and brings in other styles that are less about the heaviness of the guitar and more about the complexities of the songwriting. Segall ditches his conceptual, performer self for a more genuine identity, one that is stripped down and raw.
Through the twists and turns of this record, Ty and gang produce some of the heaviest, most wild music he’s ever written while entwining some of the most accessible pop melodies in his catalogue, namely “Talkin” and “Take Care (To Comb Your Hair).” These songs bring to mind his softer, more accessible records — including “Sleeper” and “Goodbye Bread” — showing a Segall that is just as devoted to making you swoon as he is to making you mosh.
One particular standout comes in at number three on the album’s tracklist. “Warm Hands (Freedom Returned),” clocking in at over 10 minutes long, is possibly the most ambitious song Segall has ever come up with. It swallows every song on the album and spits out a comprehensive combination of all of them. It takes listeners on a journey from a somewhat radio-friendly psych-pop song into something heavier and aggressive before jumping into a long, sprawling, space jam that recalls the Grateful Dead live classics.
Ty Segall is a garage rocker, a punk, a metalhead, a revivalist, a softie, and maybe more than we’ve seen. This record captures all of those different shoes he wears and more.
The verdict: Ty Segall’s “Ty Segall” is more than one hell of a 10th anniversary album, it’s every album he’s made in the last 10 years wrapped up into one.
Key Tracks:
“Warm Hands (Freedom Returned)” — The 10-minute epic is clearly the star of the album, intermittently meshing Segall’s more traditional style with the poppier genre he’s trying out.
“Talkin” — This sleepy ballad feels like walking home drunk arm in arm with a best friend. A potentially political message presented with the song does not override the enjoyability of swaying to Segall’s smooth, dreamy voice.
“Orange Color Queen” — Perhaps the most predictably likable of all the songs on the album, “Orange Color Queen” is the most unique pop song I’ve ever heard. It will serve to make you smile, tear up, or groove depending on your mood.
Reach Opinion Editor Rebecca Gross at arts@dailyuw.com. Twitter: @becsgross
