Ty Segall

Although I had never heard of him before, the name Ty Segall popped up in a couple of different places that I frequent, so I took a chance on his self-titled album (the second in his career--why can't he come up with a title?). It's very good, but if you had told me it was recorded in 1968, I would have believed you.

Segall, who vocally sounds a great deal like Marc Bolan of T-Rex, has a thing for 60s music, veering into psychedelia and flower power (you can't get much psychedelic than a song called "Orange Color Queen"). The songs are poppy and fresh, and may make you think of fur vests and platform boots, but they're also well produced and pleasing to the ear.

Segall even packages the CD likes it a vinyl record, with the lyrics on the back and "sides" (presumably this is exactly how the vinyl edition is package). He has nine songs, including one massive ten-minute epic in the middle, with the inscrutable title "Warm Hands (Freedom Returned)."

The songs vary from the harder rock sound of "The Only One" to the trippy "Thank You Mr. K" to the Donovan-flavored folk-rock of "Take Care (To Comb  Your Hair)." This song, which is very catchy, also has a lyric that sounds as if it were written under the influence:

"Take care to brush your long hair
When you can't brush it any longer
It may just disappear."

The track, "Papers," may be the first song I've ever heard about office supplies:

"But my papers they depend on tape
I stuck them to the wall
Yes the paper depend on tape
So they do not fall"

The makers of Scotch tape may just have a jingle.

I enjoyed this record for no other reason that it's nice to hear someone still making this kind of throwback sound. I may just check out other releases by Ty Segall.