Album Of The Week: Ty Segall’s Emotional Mugger

It hasn’t even been five months and Ty Segall has another album coming out. The last release he was associated with was Fuzz’s II back in October, a ’70s heavy metal adorned garage rock opus that topped the end of the year list of yours truly a month ago. This time around, Segall is going back to doing the solo thing with Emotional Mugger, which is his weirdest release to-date. The California whiz kid is never afraid to push the envelope and he pushes it even further with complexities that promise to flow around in your mind. Plug in to this one and chances are that you’ll feel a little freaky.

Segall fanatics don’t worry, Emotional Mugger isn’t weird in the sense that you’ll be alienated. You’ll still have to listen to it loud and there are those trademark fuzzy riffs and heavy amounts of distortion. It’s weird in the sense of how Frank Zappa was weird. There’s definitely an odd vibe to each track in a similar way to how Zappa was with his music in his prime. It rocks, but with a style and structure that’ll make you think of how Segall formulated each song the way he did. There’s an enthralling quality that’ll make you want to listen to it over and over again just to pinpoint the progressions and multiple tones.

You like noise? Then you’re bound to fall in love with Segall’s new release. It’s like he thought to combine the avant garde with rock music like The Velvet Underground did, but took it even further by being multidimensional with an array of sounds. To get a closer take, dig into my top tracks off of the Album Of The Week:

High chords from the guitar kick off “Candy Sam” in spine tingling fashion; when the downbeat combines with the chorus, you’re going to be boppin’ your head. “Diversion” seems to be carried over from Segall’s recording sessions with Fuzz and he decided to include it in this album. The heavy bass stands out in this one a whole lot. With a laid back and hypnotizing way of singing, “California Hills” has Segall going slow on the vocals with very fast breaks of guitar progressions to keep things interesting.

New England music fans can see Ty Segall with his backing band The Muggers perform at the Royale in Boston on March 1. It’ll be interesting to see how it all comes together on stage and Segall is spectacular live. Grab a copy of Emotional Mugger while you’re there; it’s a tad different, but you’re bound to love it.

Pre-order Emotional Mugger and listen to “Candy Sam” here: http://www.emotionalmugger.com

Ty Segall’s Website: http://ty-segall.com