Flock of Ty Seagulls
Recommended for:
Ty Segall fanatics
Garage and glam rock fans
People with guitar fuzz fetishes
People who just want to rock n’ roll
Pros:
Ty Segall is on it
Raw, live sound
Solid song-writing
Great starting point for people wanting to delve into Ty’s discography
Cons:
No change in direction for Ty
Ty Segall is truly the gift that just keeps on giving, and giving, and giving. He even seems to be running out of album titles as this album is the second eponymous LP from the garage rock god. For those who don’t know, Ty Segall is the extremely prolific psych-garage-sometimes glam rock musician hailing from LA. Ty Segall arrives just one year after Segall’s absurd, twisted concept album Emotional Mugger, and is Ty’s ninth solo album.
Ty Segall is the first album of the year that I was very much anticipating. I have been following Segall for years now, and have loved just about every EP, LP, single, or any other type of musical release that he has been involved with. Something I love about Ty is how drastically different he tends to make every release. He’ll make a beautiful and personal acoustic album like Sleeper, and then follow that up with a fully polished glam rock double album like Manipulator, and then follow that up with a dirty, creepy, super experimental album like Emotional Mugger. Being all over the place is something I have come to expect from Ty, which is maybe why I was somewhat disappointed by this album upon first listen. However, after listening to this album another time, I realized that while this may not be an exciting new chapter in Segall’s discography, it is a good culmination of the last few albums that have come before. Ty Segall is a great taste-sampler, cherry-picking elements of his past releases while still keeping that solid songwriting fully intact.
Ty really seemed to be going for a very raw, live feel for this album, which makes Steve Albini the perfect producer for the album. The drums are lively and bombastic, and the guitars are plentiful, vicious, and in your face. However, I did not feel that the vocals had the same animate, lively feel to them as rest of the instruments had on some songs. On songs like “Freedom” and “Thank You Mr. K,” I felt the way the vocals were recorded and double tracked took away from the “everyone is playing and being recorded at the same time in the same room” vibe a little bit. But despite being slightly dissatisfied with how some of the vocals sounded, I still largely appreciate the raw, somewhat intimate feel and sound Ty Segall has.
As previously mentioned, Ty brings his songwriting skills to the table for this project. But yet again, when does he not? For the opening track “Break a Guitar,” Ty wears a little Marc Bolan influence on his sleeve and fills the song with huge sounding guitars fuzzed out to the maximum and absolutely delicious drums. “Break a Guitar” helps reintroduce us to his Manipulator era, but does so in the loudest, most raucous way possible. Next, Ty helps remind us of the quirky-timed songwriting that composed most of Emotional Mugger with the next two songs, “Freedom” and the ten-minute long “Warm Hands.” Since there was no major change in direction or experimentation on this album, it made me happy to see Ty still challenge himself with composing a ten minute song. In addition to the bangers, Mr. Segall is able to write some softer jams that provide great cushions for the plethora of fuzz. “Orange Color Queen” and “Talkin’” are two great examples of that, and happen to be two of the better songs on the album, in my opinion. All in all, Ty’s songwriting has not been dulled one bit on this release, and a few of these songs are bound to be future staple songs for his live shows.
So while I didn’t get the drastic change in direction I was hoping for from Ty, there’s still some good songs on here. It will be enough to satiate me until the next Ty Segall release, which will probably be much sooner than it should be because he is such a machine. Any Ty Segall fan will find plenty of familiarity to love and will have no problem embracing this album.
Favorite Songs: “Orange Color Queen,” “Take Care (To Comb Your Hair)”
7.3/10
