Top 100 Albums of 2014: #2 Ty Segall, Manipulator Its not exactly a secret that Ty Segall has been allowing his inner popmeister to take the spotlight with greater frequency as his solo career has gained traction, and with 2014s Manipulator, hes delivered one of his most satisfying fusions of pop songcraft and rock & roll snazz. The album opens with the title song, a glorious Brian Wilson homage built around vintage keyboards, but on most of the tracks, Segalls guitars take center stage, and while the expected buzzy chaos is still a major part of his sound, the acoustic textures of The Clock and Green Belly, and the dueling electric/acoustic lines on Dont You Want to Know (Sue), show that his picking can be neat and precise when he wants it to be (and the former suggests hes been listening to his old T. Rex albums). When Segall does stomp on the fuzzbox and let rip on rave-ups like The Crawler and Its Over, hes still capable of making his guitar howl like a wounded dinosaur, but the songs here rely far less on lo-fi noise, and the potent grooves of Mister Main and the string-laden melodies of Stick Around are 70s-style wonders, not dependent on 21st century noise to connect. Ultimately, its the chunky, elemental melodies of numbers like The Singer and Feel that make Manipulator so satisfying, and the production is just dirty enough to make the most of Segalls guitars, while still allowing the finer details of the performances to shine through. Manipulator is a reminder that Ty Segall knows his rock & roll, but he knows a lot more than just that, and this 70s-inspired madness results in one of Segalls best and most pleasurable efforts to date. (allmusic).
Posted on: Sat, 03 Jan 2015 19:46:19 +0000
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