It teases with minute moments of silence only to drop back and crush your ears once more.Īs the album continues, it feels like Segall has made it his mission to melt faces at every turn. Whether the lyrics are an ode to a new style of musical endeavour or just Segall wanting an excuse to scream will be up to fans to decide.
Segall’s echoing voice cries “ Diversion, I’m back, I’m back, I’m back” over rumbling distortion. It’s a perfect storm of hard hitting guitar, massive use of gain and bucket load of energy. Following this is the psychotic dreamscape of Californian Hills and the screeching riffs of title track “ Emotional Mugger/Leopard Priestess“.Īs expected, the fuzz continues through to the album’s archetypal track “ Diversion“. The track builds into a wall of sound that’s almost counterintuitive to its introduction and is later concluded by a trademark solo.
Opening track “ Squealer” starts the record off with a mid-tempo beat playing somewhere in between funk and psych. The LP, at times, sounds like it was inspired by acid or even a head injury beastly guitar hooks, never ending fuzz and angelic vocals meet expectations without Segall musically repeating himself. The Manipulator was comparatively clean with harmonies reminiscent of Segall’s work with White Fence, Emotional Mugger however has followed a separate path. Over the last eight years, the Californian rocker has released a plethora of material varying from punk to folk to psychedelia, constantly evolving and changing direction. This record is not gentle nor sane – it is Segall at his most crazed. Topped off by it’s nightmarish cover of a hollow eyed plastic baby in over exposed black and white. It’s a fuzz fuelled wave of sound from start to finish and sees Segall delve deeper into his own psyche than ever before. Ty Segall’s latest offering, Emotional Mugger, is a delinquent side-step from his reassembly composed last solo record The Manipulator. The busiest man in garage rock is back again with his 10th studio album.