Ty Segall & White Fence - Hair

The eight songs on Ty Segall & White Fence's debut collaborative album Hair have echoes of their other musical projects, but lean more towards late-sixties, early-seventies stoner rock with a major twist of psyche. On the opening track "Time," you might think you were hearing a lost song that never made it on the soundtrack of the 1969 film Easy Rider, until the heavy instrumental breakdown at the end of the song sets the tone for what's to come. There are many twists and turns that snake their way into a collection of songs that explore various musical identities, all of which have one foot in the past and the other planted firmly in the present.

Prior to the release of Hair, Ty Segall and Tim Presley stated they wanted to bring back the guitar solo, and they've made good on their word with psychedelic, crunchy-guitar sounds that intertwine throughout the whole album. The song "Black Glove/Rag" chugs along with acoustic and electric guitars, while Tim Presley's lyrics reflect the perfect narration for an altered state of mind. "Tongues" has swagger and boogie with a bass line that just begs you to get down. "Crybaby" delves into rockabilly territory, but never crosses too far into the genre to dislocate the song from the rest of the patchouli-scented garage artifacts on this album.

What works with Hair concerns its many left turns. The album never leaves you thinking that you're listening to one particular sound, whether it be "punk," "garage," "classic rock," or "psychedelic." While the album may confuse the listener into believing it is decades old, there is an underlying feeling that this is definitely an album of these times.

Ty Segall and White Fence have both released their best albums this year (Slaughterhouse and Family Perfume Vol.1 & Family Perfume Vol.2 respectively), so it should come as no surprise that when they decided to join forces and create a project that mixes Segall's penchant for raucous garage pink with Presley's DIY psychedelic leanings, the result would sound timeless and allow us all to let our hair down.

FINAL MARK: A