REVIEW: Ty Segall – “Goodbye Bread”

Ty Segall / Goodbye Bread / Drag City

Found on the LPs Melted and Lemons, “Girlfriend” and “Can’t Talk” are the perfect example of that “devil music” older folk preached about in the 60s’. It’s not similar to the decade’s classification of rock n’ roll, but the way the tracks gyrate with pop drum work and blazing guitar fuzz is so flat-out addictive it feels wrong to take another listen. Goodbye Bread, Ty Segall’s fifth studio piece, isn’t as boisterous as his previous tirades. Yet his attention to detail, to letting a frantic rhythm rumble into moody grunge, pick up speed and effortlessly make a fingerpicked solo dance with your sense of hearing for 27 seconds, shows he isn’t some kid who solely takes bong hits of distortion. “The Floor” stuns for three-and-a-half minutes, but there’s more to Goodbye Bread, especially when the glaring beats (“California Commercial”) and the John Cippolina-like guitar work (“Comfortable Home”) are taken in.

Though it may be a number about drugs, “You Make The Sun Fry” isn’t drowned out. There’s no constant repetition, no watching riffs wander into inebriated solos. It’s just Segall singing along to a slower tempo that rocks the boat of psychedelia while drum fills puncture the chorus. That detail wraps ever so tightly around the San Francisco songwriter’s vocals, which stay true to what manufactured Melted and his 2008 self-titled release (as seen on “I Am With You and “Fine”). The output is far from graceful and it doesn’t need to be as Goodbye Bread is more of a thesis on a mind attempting to grasp the concept of how melodies are shaped by drums, strings and bass lines. The conclusion – much like “My Head Explodes” – illustrates he’s no Neil Young, John Dwyer or a resurrection of classic Cream; he’s just simply Ty Segall.

Download: “The Floor”, “You Make The Sun Fry”

 

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