Emotional Mugger – Ty Segall

The 1960’s saw the emergence garage rock, a stripped down, sophomoric genre of rock and roll that favored simplicity and aggression over complexity and virtuosity. It was rock music for the average joe who knew a few chords and lived with his parents. Now in the 21st century, we have Ty Segall, a 28 year old solo artist from California who refuses to let the cops shut down the party in his garage just because of a few noise complaints. They’ll probably just join the mosh pit anyway.

While it probably wouldn’t be considered a full fledged concept album, Emotional Mugger has a theme that ties the record together and makes it feel like a cohesive work. In general, it revolves around addiction, using candy as a metaphor – most prominently on the track “Candy Sam.”

Segall’s newest release shows a level of wit and intelligence you may not expect from this kind of music, while being able to laugh at itself at the same time. It stands among a group of peers that, despite appearing wild, don’t always take a whole lot of sonic risks. It can be hard to innovate in a genre that’s based on simplicity. While he isn’t displaying insane technical skills on any instruments, Segall flirts with psychedelic and noise rock, sometimes allowing an extended jam or wash of guitar feedback to take the reigns of a song here and there to change things up.

A lot of different sounds appear to have influenced Segall when writing Emotional Mugger. The fifth track, “Diversion,” sounds like a Queens of the Stone Song ramming into a parked car with Oasis’ Liam and Noel Gallagher inside. Segall toys around with elements of psychedelic rock here and there, and there’s even a hip hop vibe on the instrumental for title track. A song a little after the halfway point, “Squealer Two,” is basically a funk song run through a layer of fuzz. One of Mugger’s weakest moments was on the interlude, “WUOTWS.” While not compromising the album, it did slow things down a bit. The album’s biggest fault might actually be that it doesn’t feel like it picks up a whole lot of momentum. Clocking in at 38 minutes, it’s relatively brief, but another 8 or so minutes could have been shaved off.

Thankfully, Segull’s most recent release still succeeds as a whole, and there’s a certain sense of humor throughout it as well as an air of danger and experimentation that is a refreshing change in the often times derivative world of garage rock. It’s a noble effort and likely a stepping stone to the new sounds that Ty Segall wants to explore.