A One-Man Rock Renaissance

We need to talk about Ty Segall

If there is a contemporary rocker worth your attention, it’s this guy. He does it all: hard rock, psych rock, ‘70s-style glam, sludge metal, grunge, thrash, garage rock, dream pop, folk-rock, and covers.

Segall is a mega-gifted songwriter, a multi-instrumentalist, and possibly the hardest-working musician in modern rock. His talent and openness to collaboration attracts a dazzling constellation of gifted musicians into his musical orbit. Spotify puts me in the top 1% of his listeners, but I’ve yet to reach the bottom of his piles of albums, singles, and side projects. He released yet another stellar album, Harmonizer, just this month.

The only problem with Segall (pronounced seagull) is that his vast musical catalog can be daunting to new listeners. Wading in is entirely worthwhile, but that doesn’t make the prospect any less intimidating. For the uninitiated, I’ve pieced together a Spotify playlist linked at the end of this post.

The songs I’m suggesting are listed in order of release date: I can gush about music all day, but I’m not big on ranking the tunes I love. It’s subjective and can change with my mood.

Segall has so many LPs that I had to self-impose some limits on this list. I’ll offer one standout track and possibly an honorable mention per album and cover not more than one record per year. If I skip an album, don’t assume I hated it. I’ve probably just been too smitten with the others to delve into that one yet. For now, rather than get into his numerous worthwhile side projects, EPs, and singles, I’m sticking with his long players.

Unfortunately, that prevents me from including my all-time favorite power trio stoner metal group, Fuzz, led by blistering ax man Charles Moothart. Fuzz is worthy of its own post anyway.

Segall has put out an extensive stable of covers, too. Everything from Amon Düül II’s Archangel Thunderbird to War’s Low Rider. His covers should get their own post and playlist in the future as well. He also came up at least three times in my last article for The Riff.

Ty Segall Tracks to Listen to Right Now

Rusted Dust

Lemons (2009)

Rusted Dust would be right at home in an early grunge-era MTV Unplugged set — and I mean that in the best way possible. Its discordant guitar, self-loathing lyrics, reverberating vocals, and chorus of Go away are hauntingly beautiful.

When I talk too loud/my mind becomes a cloud/A thinning rusted dust/confused, I must, must, must/Go away/But I still talk — Ty Segall, “Rusted Dust”

Honorable mention: The jangling, almost rockabilly Lovely One.

Caesar

Melted (2010)

I love the first three songs on Melted so much that I almost made this a three-fer. Mindful of breaking my own rules, I went with Caesar.

Don’t bother looking up the lyrics: everyone has them wrong. Really, you just need to sing along with the irresistible falsetto chorus.

Why must the people cry?/Why must the people cry for me?/Hey hey. — Ty Segall, “Caeser”

Honorable mention: A thunderous rocker with a deceptively delicate intro, Finger.

Goodbye Bread

Goodbye Bread (2011)

This Beatleseque lullaby has a sweet melody. Segall’s vocals are plaintive and sublime. The guitar solo fits nicely, too. I find myself crooning along to Goodbye Bread even though I couldn’t carry a tune if it was stuffed in my backpack.

And who sings the song/When you’re gone/Won’t you sing along? — Ty Segall, “Goodbye Bread”

Honorable mention: The lyrically fun You Make the Sun Fry.

Thank God For Sinners

Twins (2012)

This one is a catchier-than-COVID, grunge-esque guitar rocker on the heavier end.

Come Outside

Sleeper (2013)

Although Sleeper’s The Keepers is currently its most played Spotify track, Come Outside edges it out in my book. This mid-tempo piece features gorgeous acoustic strumming and steady guitar percussion (Confession: the only things I love as much as guitar percussion are dropped D tuning and counter melodies).

It offers some of Segall’s most mellifluous vocals. The ooh-oohs that cap it off are a counter melody of the horns in Segall’s Fanny Dog (Freedom’s Goblin).

The Sleeper album is a gorgeous, folk-infused exploration of anger, grief, and love written in the wake of Segall’s father’s death, and is like nothing else in his catalog. I listened to it on repeat for months while stuck at home during the thick of the pandemic. In my heart, it will forever be associated with jigsaw puzzles and the scent of baking sourdough bread.

Honorable mention: Sweet C.C. is as glamtastic as anything T. Rex ever put out. Speaking of T. Rex, Segall has an entire album of T. Rex covers, Ty Rex. When it comes to glam, he learned from the best and Sweet C.C. proves it.

Mister Main

Manipulator (2014)

It ain’t easy to pick an essential track from a double album chock full of fantastic songwriting. Manipulator, arguably Segall’s best album, is certainly his most polished. I’ll ride for Mister Main if only for Mikal Cronin’s compelling bass groove and Segall’s smooth vocals. Don’t be surprised if you find yourself hitting repeat 5 times in a row. It’s just that good.

Honorable mention: Feel. If you’d already heard some Segall, it was likely this driving number with 3.5 million Spotify plays — it didn’t get there by accident.

Squealer

Emotional Mugger (2016)

Straight up, top-notch garage rock.

Break a Guitar

Ty Segall (2017)

Segall dunks hard on the whole “Baby, I’m gonna make you a star” cliche with blistering riffage.

C’mon baby/take my guitar/I’ll be/I’ll be at the bar — Ty Segall, “Break a Guitar”

Honorable mention: Take Care (To Comb Your Hair). A gently building glam number that’s lyrically a novelty song.

Alta

Freedom’s Goblin (2018)

I’ve never been big on power ballads but this is a power ballad with a twist. Alta is blessedly free of the typical big, dumb, hairspray-n-spandex lust that renders so many power ballads a cringe-fest. It opens with a soft organ melody and builds into a bombastic chorus, pleading guitar solos, and earnest professions of love.

Before you had a name/Before the sailors came/I would fight to save you /I would give my life! — Ty Segall, “Alta”

Yes, that does sound terribly melodramatic. But it’s the subject of this devotion that makes Alta unique despite all the trappings of a power ballad. Alta refers to the pristine beauty of pre-colonial Northern California. The declarations of undying affection and selfless protection are not for a woman, but for an environment forever lost.

Honorable mention: And, Goodnight, an extended blues jam that’s a meditation on Sleeper’s titular track. Complete with jazzy guitar meanderings so high on the neck they’d make Duane Allman proud, And Goodnight boosts the already great Sleeper to a whole new level.

Love Fuzz

Deforming Lobes (2019)

Hold onto your neighbors, I’m about to speak in tongues.

The first few times I heard this live version of Love Fuzz, I didn’t get it. Ultra lo-fi. Noisy. Messier than my teenager’s bedroom floor. A few spins put me firmly in its grip.

The intro sounds like Segall is on the verge of breaking into a metallic, fuzzed-out cover of Queen’s Brighton Rock. This goes on for 48 seconds and ends abruptly. There is barely a breath before he bashes your skull with the main riff. The simple, repetitive lyrics are yelped.

You pretty, pretty one/you’re lovely/lovelier than the sun/you help me/help me see/how lovely/your love can be/lovely/your love can be. — Ty Segall, “Love Fuzz”

That is the full extent of the lyrics but no one picks up an album titled Deforming Lobes expecting sheer poetry.

Around the 4:08 mark, the drums drop out as Segall shreds the main riff relentlessly. By 4:34, it starts to stutter and stagger with increasing static and squawks. Exploring the riff at various intensities and speeds, keyboardist Ben Boye then deconstructs it until the wheels come off. It feels like a rusted iron giant stumbling down a hill, rivets popping and pieces crashing to the ground. It’s down until it’s desperately protesting its own demise with a messy scattering of beep-beep-boop-BOOP-boop-beep-beep until it collapses. There’s a blink of silence and then the song roars back to life and skids full bore into the finale.

It’s f’n brilliant!

Fun fact about this album’s title: it’s an anagram for Freedom’s Goblin, the studio album Segall & The Freedom Band were touring in support of when this was recorded at the Teragram Ballroom in Los Angeles.

Honorable mention: Here I go breaking my own self-imposed rule to bring up the Freedom Band’s fantastic cover of The Groundhogs 1971 blues-rocker, Cherry Red. On a live album stuffed with heavy hitters, those two tracks are the MVPs.

Erased

Harmonizer (2021)

Tension and intensity make Erased an instant standout on Segall’s newest LP, Harmonizer. The rhythm evokes an anxious heart. The minor key guitar expands and contracts like a fever dream while the vocals detail the trauma of abandonment in infancy.

Vacant like a baby, before the mind can see/Trapped inside the blanket of the mouth that makes you free/Turning into language like a breeze outside/The words I can’t remember/The faces turn to night/

Faceless/Erased/Nameless/I’m replaced — Ty Segall, “Erased”

Segall was adopted. Is that what this song is about? I don’t know, I’m not his therapist. But if it is, dude, that’s devastating.

Honorable mention: Whisper. Uncle! I am temporarily drained of words about music. Just go listen to it.

The Playlist

Ty Segall Sampler is a Spotify playlist I assembled, with each of these tracks in order of mention in this article.

Go give it a listen!