As longtime readers of Tulip Frenzy are no doubt aware, we believe we are living in a Golden Age of Rock’n’Roll, thanks largely to the emergence of Ty Segall, Thee Oh See’s John Dwyer, and White Fence’s Tim Presley. Ty is clearly the freshest platter o’ grass-fed beef in the steakhouse, a fuzz-tone wunderkind whose solo albums since about 2009 have shown artistic growth in a compressed time frame that, it is not an exaggeration to say, exceeds that of previous saviors-of-the-genre like The Clash.
You can never have too much garage-rock psyche mixed with Beatles chops, we always say, and over the past four years or so Mr. Segall has delivered the goods in spades. Way we see it, the arrival of Ty in our summer sky was like the return of the comet that brought us the British Invasion, swept back into view with the Summer o’ Love, made a hasty swoop ’round the planet during the punk era, but then went back into the cosmos for a long and dilatory snooze before three wiseacres came out of the East bearing Frankenstein and Murine, announcing His arrival.
If you are getting the message we believe the sun never sets on Ty Segall’s full talent, yeah, we cop that plea. So it is with genuine mixed emotions that we greeted the release this week of Manipulator, the 17-song opus Segall’s been promising to drop all these years. There is a fantastic album contained within it, but going for the double-album glory has brought slightly mixed results. Let’s offer up the good, bad, and ugly in the spirit of friendship and avuncular advice.
We imagine that Ty, a smart 27-year old who can hit for distance and for average, looked over at Dan Auerbach and the success he’s had with the Black Keys and said, hmmm. Until the Black Keys hit it big, they were an interesting, authentic Ohio blues band with traces of soul. Segall is an interesting Cali punk-rock demigod with traces of metal. Objectively, there is no reason why the Black Keys should play sold-out shows at the Verizon Center and Ty Segall can’t. Manipulator, then, is an album that is at once mostly true to Ty’s prior work while also a straightforward play for the radio programmer’s heart and soul. Viewed as such it is a complete success.
That said, when the essential Ty Segall playlist is made up in, say, 2018, we bet we will put many more songs from Twins and Goodbye Bread, or rarities like “Children of Paul” on it than songs from Manipulator. If “Green Belly” breaks wide open on XMU, or “Who’s Producing You” becomes the biggest hit on Beats Music, no one will be happier than us. For the uninitiated, Manipulator is a fantastic album. For those who believe that Ty lights up the night sky, yeah, we get it, and we hope it sells in the mega-millions. And we’re left just a little bit disappointed — not by the first, say, seven songs, but by what shows up in the back nine, some of which is filler. For the first time, as catchy as it is, a song like “Susie Thumb” seems slightly formulaic. Unusually, in “The Hand,” he sounds just a wee bit generic.
But on the title track, on songs like “It’s Over” and “Feel,” the magic is there. Oh brother, is it there. We exult in it, and hope those listening for the first time — and we suspect millions will — are moved by this ‘un to press the music wide-eyed on all their friends and family, and then go explore the earlier, rawer albums, and the associated recs by Thee Oh Sees and White Fence that have been made better by the knowledge that Ty was out back, recording his new one in a cheap and scuzzy garage.
Tulip Frenzy 