Don’t let the garage rock affectations fool you — Ty Segall is a ridiculously hard worker.
The man has released eight solo albums and is a member of seven bands, including his Ty Segall Band, making his discography ludicrously large for someone his age. At only 27, Segall has already built up a huge amount of musical experience, experimenting with glam-rock, psychedelic ’60s throwbacks and raucous garage rock.
Having synthesized and deconstructed his genres of choice, going loud and quiet and most places in-between, the question coming into new album “Manipulator” was “Where will Ty Segall go from here?”
It turns out that Segall is back to trying to do everything, the ambitious result of a 14-month writing period. The album features Segall in almost every one of his modes, though fans of any one in particular may be slightly disappointed by the offerings. It doesn’t have the brazen rock’n’roll showmanship of “Melted” or quite the same inspired lyricism as “Goodbye Bread,” but the payoff is big — Segall has successfully corralled his influences into a nicely coherent whole.
It sounds like an album that should be a thesis statement, but it’s not quite there. The evened-out sound means that the album doesn’t get to progress quite like a masterpiece should, and at 17 songs and around 50 percent longer than the average Segall offering, it begins to play like a bun that spent too much time in the oven.
The more uniform sound means you have to take more care to hear the nuances in each song, which will be amply rewarded by Segall’s dedicated workmanship. He recorded all but one song on the album solo, and his hard work and attention to detail pays off — every song is a well-composed potential single, doing exactly what they set out to do.
Strummy, energetic ’60s psych-tinged “The Clock” is lush, fun and catchy, but then follow-up “Green Belly” sounds like a slightly-tweaked remake of what you just heard. Lead song “Manipulator” is a beautiful hybrid, sprinkling glam-rock, trilling lyrics over psych rock tunes, and then second song “Tall Man, Skinny Lady” devotes its second half to technically complex guitar riffs. It’s well done, but it hurts the momentum of the album.
Therein lies the conflict at the heart of “Manipulator” — the songs are individually brilliant, but together they often feel at odds with each other.
“Manipulator” isn’t Segall’s masterpiece, but it is a collection of top-tier work from a top-tier artist. Mix it, mash it, pepper your Spotify playlists with it, and make sure to spend some quality time with every song. It’s worth it.