Ty Segall
spent so much of 2018 cranking out albums and bringing the rock in a big way that one can forgive him for slowing down a bit and turning the volume down in 2019.
First Taste
sounds like that's just what
Segall
chose to do. It's a more tuneful and less aggressive set of songs than
Freedom's Goblin
,
Joy
, or
Fudge Sandwich
, with
easing up on his monolithic guitar attack and focusing more on pop melodies and folk-rock structures in his songs and arrangements. However,
sure hasn't cut back on his love of psychedelia, and
finds him having a great deal of trippy fun, playing with unusual sonics and enjoying the possibilities of the recording process. The mass of overdubbed harmony vocals on "Ice Plant" give playful structure to
's pleas to "let your love rain down on me"; the dueling right channel/left channel drum solos on "The Fall" are a rare example of using two drummers at once being a good idea; and the airy mandolins in "The Arms" and "I Sing Them" add a bright, summertime feel to the tunes, especially when they interact with the buzzy tone of
's guitar in the former and the wobbly flutes in the latter.
also confirms that
hasn't given up rocking, even if he's in more subtle form here, and "Taste" and "The Fall" give him plenty of room to wail on guitar and drums and work up a healthy sweat.
is the work of a man who clearly isn't afraid of spending some time and effort realizing his vision:
plays the majority of the instruments here, and the performances and production are full bodied and adventurous, full of life and bubbling over with ideas. In short,
isn't an especially loud or heavy
album, but his creative signatures are here in a big way, and it's truly impressive that he not only cranks out so many albums, but that they're consistently strong without rehashing old ideas. At a time when too many people are questioning if rock & roll is alive at all,
is doing the work of four or five people in keeping it healthy, and
is ample evidence that he's nowhere close to being done, which is good news indeed. ~ Mark Deming