Album Review: Ty Segall- Manipulator (2014)

Ty Segall- Manipulator (2014) Review

Too often projects are crippled by hype. Whether it’s a film, an album or a novel, people become too excited and what might have normally been a perfectly fine and good release becomes crucified because it couldn’t live up to every expectation people had, and then fix their oven.

So it’s refreshing when something comes out and weathers the potential storm with nothing more complicated than simply being good at what it is. Ty Segall’s newest release, Manipulator, is such an album. Segall’s 7^th solo release (amidst a labyrinth of side projects and other works) is his most consistently strong album, bringing home all of his previous work and tying (ha!) it all together with aplomb.

Perhaps the most immediately noticeable change is the presence of acoustic guitar on most of the songs. Rather than the exclusive and introspective Sleeper (2013), however, it’s incorporated into Manipulator seamlessly, lending Segall’s existing sound a more considered and interesting flavour; it’s reminiscent of a sunny and pleasant Autumn day, as opposed to the “cruising around the boardwalk, music blaring, intimidating old ladies” fury of 2012’s Twins and/or Slaughterhouse. Manipulator still has its moments of sound and fury, including “Feel”, which culminates in what might be Segall’s loudest, most viscerally satisfying moment ever, however, Manipulator is more notable not for what is familiar, but rather for what isn’t. The 14 months that Segall took to write and record it are evident to anyone who has heard any of his previous releases; hearing it alongside Melted (2010), it’s hard to imagine such rapid progress in four years. Each song is meticulously arranged, and produced clearly and crisply, while also retaining the skanky-fuzz that is Segall’s trademark sound.

It’s also worth mentioning how dense Manipulator is; despite it’s 55 minute runtime and 17 tracks, it is absolutely packed with ideas and thoughts, though presented in a more polished form than is typical of Segall. The result is an album that features a steady tracklist of great pop songs. While “Susie Thumb” is a good choice for a single, really, it could have been any of the 17 songs. This isn’t meant as an insult; rather, Segall’s typically eccentric style of composing a tracklist has levelled out and there’s a feel of coherence to the progression of songs. It sounds like the album you should have in your car this summer, from the opening organ curiosity of title track “Manipulator”, to the smoky coolness of “Green Belly”, right up until the sweet smirk of the album closer, “Stick Around”.

While that’s all well and good, the only thing missing from Manipulator are the spontaneous high’s that characterised his past releases, the standout songs from each album. While the album is undeniably strong as a whole, it lacks the punch of that single song that Ty Segall fans are familiar with from each of his previous releases; the lack of a “You’re The Doctor”, “I Bought My Eyes”, “Finger” or “Goodbye Bread” might leave some fans with a strange feeling of hollow satisfaction from the album, though I found that enjoying Manipulator as a consolidated album rather than a mere collection of songs was a nice change. As a way of tying together his output up to this point, Segall certainly covered his bases; as said above, you can feel touches of everything that Segall has released so far on Manipulator, though not to an overwhelming degree.

Which leads to the only real drawback of the album. While it leaves me interested in what’s to come for the San Francisco garage-guru, the double-length and consistency in the songs don’t lend that interest the same sense of urgency that I felt while waiting for Manipulator. By giving us such a sustained and concentrated effort, it seems to leave Segall trapped between recording styles: the previous proliferation that we’ve been familiar with, or the more considered approach that he took with this album. Now that he’s given personality and character to each of those recording methods, it feels like there’s little else for him to do. While I’m more than happy to be proven wrong, it seems like Manipulator is the full stop to Ty Segall’s career-spanning momentum, rather than the exclamation mark it seemed like it would be. Regardless, there’s still too much on this album to love for me to be too worried.

Standout tracks: Manipulator, Feel, The Hand, Stick Around