Ty Segall

Twins

Written by: BV on 13/08/2013 21:15:04

As far as insane productivity goes, Californian garage-rock monolith Ty Segall is up there with the best of them. Having managed to put out no less than 3 albums throughout 2012, this being the third (which I am devastatingly late to review), one could argue that there might be a presence of an abundance of filler material. Luckily though, the evidence seems to suggest otherwise as the two previous releases “Slaughterhouse”(as Ty Segall Band), “Hair” (a collaboration with White Fence) as well as this album, contain a variety of styles and an equal array of interesting songs, effectively smashing the term filler material to the ground.

As the first track of the album, “Thank God for Sinners”, plows through a menacing, yet easily accessible chord progression, this track is instantly recognizable as a Ty Segall song when the infectious chorus enters and his screaming and howling accompanies the downright obligatory wall of fuzz guitar. Granted, this could seem like yet another quite verse/loud chorus dynamic, though even the quiet parts are actually quite distorted – just a bit less distorted than the following part, thus creating a slight variation on a well-traveled structure. As the following fast-paced punk track “You’re the Doctor” rips my speakers apart bit by bit, it is becoming abundantly evident that Ty Segall’s latest effort follows no single formula, instead opting for a massive stylistic cauldron filled to the brim with rehashed ideas from the last 40 years, with his beautifully recognizable fuzz-tone splattered all over it for good measure.

The oddly optimistic acoustic track “Gold on the Shore” is yet another example of the diverse nature of the tracks on this album, and despite the fact that these tracks are indeed noteworthy on their own, they do provide an odd aesthetic to the album, never really completing it as a whole but rather completing it as a showcase of Ty Segall’s often embellished, yet also deserved reputation of diversity. And so, with “There Is No Tomorrow”, the album’s apocalyptic closing track, Ty Segall also explores the mechanics of a jangling ballad further in an effort to once again diversify this album as extensively as he could possibly think of. And then again, I have my doubts about whether or not this concept is actually meant to be diverse, rather than just showing where he, as a songwriter, where at the current point of writing as most of his albums tend to reflect his progression through genres – perhaps reaching a fork in the road here, opting for a mix and match solution of many different styles incorporated into the length of a single album.

Because of this, I reckon some fans of him would, at this point, probably be moaning about this and would probably want him to stick to any one sound on the album, rather than jumping around in genres like a rabbit with ADD, but somehow this massive diversity and genre-confusion seems to be an increasingly charming part of this album – leaving me assured that Ty Segall probably won't make an album like this again any time soon. – Nor should he, as this stands as a generally successful effort that probably can’t be reproduced any time soon.

8

Download: Thank God for Sinners, There Is No Tomorrow, Gold on the Shore
For The Fans Of: White Fence, Sic Alps, The Setting Son
Listen: facebook.com

Release Date 09.10.2012
Drag City


Related Items | How we score?
Comments
comments powered by Disqus

Legal

© Copyright MMXXIV Rockfreaks.net.