| Ty Segall |
Freedom’s Goblin |
Ty Segall — Freedom’s Goblin (26 Jan., 2018) 
•♠• Freedom’s Goblin is the new Ty Segall album: 19 tracks strong, filling four sides of vinyl nonstop, with an unrestricted sense of coming together to make an album. Out January 26th, it wants you to get your head straight — but first, the process will make your head spin! On any given side, we’re tracking five or six full~blown personalities, unconcerned with convention or continuity. The songs came in the flow of the year: days of vomit and days of ecstasy and escape too, and days between. The rulebook’s been tossed, but Freedom’s Goblin is thick with deep songwriting resources, be it stomper, weeper, ballad, screamer, banger or funker~upper, all diverted into new Tydentities in the name of love and loathing. Whether chilling at home or on tour with the Freedom Band, tracks were cut at five studios in LA, Chicago and Memphis, engineered by Steve Albini, F. Bermudez, Lawrence “Boo” Mitchell and of course, Ty himself. The goal was getting free: embracing any approach necessary to communicate new heights and depths, seeking new places for the fuzz to land among octaving harmonies, dancefloor grooves, synths, saxes and horns, jams, post~Nicky~Hopkins r’n’b electric piano vibes, children~of~the~corn psycho~rebellions, old country waltzes and down~by~the~river shuffles. Basically, the free~est bunch of pop songs Ty’s ever put on tape ~ free to love or to be alone; to be pretty or pretty ugly; free to turn the other cheek or to turn up the volume. And of course, free to make just about any kind of song that’ll free people when they hear it ~ because we’re ALL Goblins and we ALL want our Freedom! This feeling comes alive in “Every 1’s a Winner,” the sixth Freedom’s Goblin pre~release share (a record for Drag City!), including last night’s sneak peek, big band debut of “Fanny Dog” on CONAN. “Every 1’s a Winner, baby that’s the truth” ~ truly, a much~needed message for our times! As in, the kind of message we don’t expect anyone anywhere saying anytime soon. Ty Segall is naturally delivering this message specially to a special someone of his own, the kind to whom makin’ love is such a thrill ~ but you too are free to be special to someone also, so long as you realize that with such freedom comes great responsibility. Ty covers Hot Chocolate here as if he’d been funkin’ since he electric slid out the cradle!. The sound of 2018 (and 2017!) will be much improved by its presence, and everything else...
•♠• “Despite the obvious trimming that could be done around the belly, Freedom’s Goblin is still a worthwhile beast to take on. In fact, in today’s world of playlist creating, it’s easy to cut, paste, and rearrange albums into your own preference, and it seems like this album is an ideal candidate for such treatment. However people decide to digest and dissect Freedom’s Goblin, there are tracks on here that will undoubtedly go down in the pantheon of great Ty Segall songs and be taken out on stage to thrill and delight. The rest can be quickly and easily enjoyed, then entirely forgotten about ~ which doesn’t really matter, since we’re probably only a year or so away from yet another Ty Segall album.” (Rob Hakimian)
Born: June 8, 1987
Location: Orange County ~ Laguna Beach, Los Angeles, California, United States
Genre: Psychedelic Rock, Garage Rock
Album release: 26 Jan, 2018
Record Label: Drag City
Duration: 56:23
Tracks:
01. Fanny Dog 3:39
02. Rain 4:05
03. Every 1’s A Winner 4:18
04. Despoiler Of Cadaver 3:52
05. When Mommy Kills You 2:47
06. My Lady’s On Fire 3:52
07. Alta 4:07
08. Meaning 3:06
09. Cry Cry Cry 3:12
10. Shoot You Up 3:20
11. You Say All The Nice Things 4:22
12. The Last Waltz 2:24
13. She 6:22
14. Prison 1:06
15. Talkin 3 2:02
16. The Main Pretender 2:59
17. I’m Free 2:42
18. 5 Ft. Tall 4:33
19. And, Goodnight 12:02
℗ 2018 Drag City
•♠• “Freedom’s Goblin” flies us around the soundworld of Ty Segall in nineteen tracks, allowing him to do a bit everything for the free and the goblins of Freedom alike! Deep impact rock of all shapes and sizes and some of the most violent, passionate, funny and free pop songs of 2018.
Review
by Stuart Berman, JANUARY 26 2018 / Score: 8.1
•♠• On his excellent and ambitious double album, the tuneful sensibility that Segall has been nurturing for years has fully blossomed, all while keeping his primordial spirit intact.
•♠• Near the end of last year, Ty Segall put a bunch of new songs out online, which is a bit like saying water is wet. But even for a guy who has spent the last decade setting the pace for indie~rock prolificacy, releasing 20 albums and more than 30 singles and EPs, these tracks stood out. They sounded like strange one~off experiments, from the heaving hardcore of “Meaning” (featuring lead shrieking from Segall’s wife Denée) to a straight~up cover of Hot Chocolate’s 1978 disco warhorse “Every 1’s a Winner” (with guest percussion from Fred Armisen to boot). It turns out these songs weren't just a stream of orphaned outtakes. Rather, they were setting the far~flung aesthetic goalposts for Segall’s most freewheeling and free~ranging album to date, Freedom’s Goblin.
•♠• A year ago, you could’ve said the same thing about the Ty Segall album, which pit some of his most deranged material against his most unabashedly romantic, yielding the scatterbrained folk~punk/psych~jazz suite “Freedom”/”Warm Hands (Freedom Returned).” As the title suggests, Freedom’s Goblin sounds like that 12~minute epic’s evil offspring, spreading its lawlessness across an hour and a quarter. It’s Segall’s second double album to date, but the first one to truly embrace and exploit the possibilities of the four~sided medium. In essence, this is Segall’s White Album moment, a scrapbook of the singer’s many guises, along with a few new ones, too — check the sleazy drum~machine disco of “Despoiler of Cadaver” or the T. Rex~goes~to~E.-Street swoon of “My Lady’s on Fire.” Recorded piecemeal with various line~up configurations in five different cities, its most remarkable quality isn’t the whiplash~nducing, track~to~track variation — it’s that each song works as both a crucial unifying thread in the overall patchwork and as a stand~alone statement.
•♠• In marveling at the sheer volume of Segall’s discography, it’s easy to overlook his growth as a writer. He’s often slotted alongside peers like Thee Oh Sees and King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard in the pantheon of garage~rockers with exploratory impulses and little regard for traditional promo cycles. But it’s more apt to mention him in the same breath as musicians like Robert Pollard, Ted Leo, or Elliott Smith — expert melody~makers who borrow liberally from the classic~rock canon, but reshape and demystify it in their own eccentric image. And on Freedom’s Goblin, the tuneful sensibility that Segall has been nurturing since 2011’s Goodbye Bread fully blossoms into sky~high hooks and rich, resonant lyricism, all while keeping his primordial spirit intact.
•♠• With the grandiose grunge of “Alta,” Segall delivers an ode to Mother Nature with all the valor of a superhero flick, while the opening “Fanny Dog” could be the most badass song ever dedicated to a household pet, summoning a brass section to pummel its rumbling riff into submission. But the album’s ugliest moments only enhance its prettiest: The burning fury of “Meaning” is immediately extinguished by the wistful George Harrison tribute “Cry, Cry, Cry”; the lecherous fuzz of “Shoot You Up” is chased by the cosmic, falsetto~cooed folk~rock of “You Say All the Nice Things.”
•♠• As the latter song unsubtly suggests, Freedom’s Goblin is an album made by a guy who’s clearly head~over~heels in love — Segall and Denée married just over a year ago, and through that lens, the “Every’s 1 a Winner” cover sounds less like a cheeky lark than a genuine expression of devotion. But if Freedom’s Goblin was born of a honeymoon period, it’s one where the room~service trolley becomes food~fight ammo, and TVs get tossed out into swimming pools. Even the album’s most unruly turns — like the guitar solo on the motorik metal of “She” — project an exhilarated, anarchic joy that sustains the album’s momentum until its great payoff: the penultimate “5 Ft Tall.” Here, Segall delivers the totemic power~pop knockout that he’s been working toward his entire career, the sort of hair~raising, roller~coaster rocker that you could imagine a contented Kurt Cobain writing.
•♠• Following that glorious peak, you can forgive Segall for indulging in an extended comedown. As the closing “And, Goodnight” begins its slack, Crazy~orsed lurch, it appears we’re in for 12 minutes of improvised guitar skronk. But when Segall’s vocal comes in just before the three~minute mark, it’s revealed that this is no random jam, but an extended, electrified cover of the title track to his 2013 psych~folk opus, Sleeper. It’s a song Segall originally wrote for Denée one night as she was dozing off, but it served as the surreal, dreamlike portal into a deeply meditative album where Segall addressed the death of his adoptive father and subsequent estrangement from his mother. This new version feels even less like a romantic reverie and more like all the intervening years of pent~up sadness and frustration being unleashed through Segall’s scorching fretboard runs. It’s an intensely sobering conclusion to an otherwise intoxicating album and a reminder that Segall’s ascent from garage~punk hellraiser to consummate rock craftsman over the past 10 years hasn’t been without its trying times. But Freedom’s Goblin is ultimately a celebration of Segall’s aesthetic and emotional freedom — a definitive capstone to the first decade of a scuzzy, heartfelt songwriter nonpareil. •♠• https://pitchfork.com/
Also:
Rob Hakimian, 26 Jan, 2018 / Score: 7.5
•♠• https://www.thefourohfive.com/music/review/review-ty-segall-both-thrills-and-confuses-on-the-over-stuffed-freedom-s-goblin-151
Bandcamp: https://tysegall.bandcamp.com/album/freedoms-goblin
Label: http://www.dragcity.com/
•♠••♠••♠••♠••♠••♠••♠••♠••♠••♠••♠••♠••♠••♠••♠••♠••♠••♠••♠••♠••♠•♠
| Ty Segall |
Freedom’s Goblin |
•♠• “Despite the obvious trimming that could be done around the belly, Freedom’s Goblin is still a worthwhile beast to take on. In fact, in today’s world of playlist creating, it’s easy to cut, paste, and rearrange albums into your own preference, and it seems like this album is an ideal candidate for such treatment. However people decide to digest and dissect Freedom’s Goblin, there are tracks on here that will undoubtedly go down in the pantheon of great Ty Segall songs and be taken out on stage to thrill and delight. The rest can be quickly and easily enjoyed, then entirely forgotten about ~ which doesn’t really matter, since we’re probably only a year or so away from yet another Ty Segall album.” (Rob Hakimian)
Born: June 8, 1987
Location: Orange County ~ Laguna Beach, Los Angeles, California, United States
Genre: Psychedelic Rock, Garage Rock
Album release: 26 Jan, 2018
Record Label: Drag City
Duration: 56:23
Tracks:
01. Fanny Dog 3:39
02. Rain 4:05
03. Every 1’s A Winner 4:18
04. Despoiler Of Cadaver 3:52
05. When Mommy Kills You 2:47
06. My Lady’s On Fire 3:52
07. Alta 4:07
08. Meaning 3:06
09. Cry Cry Cry 3:12
10. Shoot You Up 3:20
11. You Say All The Nice Things 4:22
12. The Last Waltz 2:24
13. She 6:22
14. Prison 1:06
15. Talkin 3 2:02
16. The Main Pretender 2:59
17. I’m Free 2:42
18. 5 Ft. Tall 4:33
19. And, Goodnight 12:02
℗ 2018 Drag City
•♠• “Freedom’s Goblin” flies us around the soundworld of Ty Segall in nineteen tracks, allowing him to do a bit everything for the free and the goblins of Freedom alike! Deep impact rock of all shapes and sizes and some of the most violent, passionate, funny and free pop songs of 2018.
Review
by Stuart Berman, JANUARY 26 2018 / Score: 8.1
•♠• On his excellent and ambitious double album, the tuneful sensibility that Segall has been nurturing for years has fully blossomed, all while keeping his primordial spirit intact.
•♠• Near the end of last year, Ty Segall put a bunch of new songs out online, which is a bit like saying water is wet. But even for a guy who has spent the last decade setting the pace for indie~rock prolificacy, releasing 20 albums and more than 30 singles and EPs, these tracks stood out. They sounded like strange one~off experiments, from the heaving hardcore of “Meaning” (featuring lead shrieking from Segall’s wife Denée) to a straight~up cover of Hot Chocolate’s 1978 disco warhorse “Every 1’s a Winner” (with guest percussion from Fred Armisen to boot). It turns out these songs weren't just a stream of orphaned outtakes. Rather, they were setting the far~flung aesthetic goalposts for Segall’s most freewheeling and free~ranging album to date, Freedom’s Goblin.
•♠• A year ago, you could’ve said the same thing about the Ty Segall album, which pit some of his most deranged material against his most unabashedly romantic, yielding the scatterbrained folk~punk/psych~jazz suite “Freedom”/”Warm Hands (Freedom Returned).” As the title suggests, Freedom’s Goblin sounds like that 12~minute epic’s evil offspring, spreading its lawlessness across an hour and a quarter. It’s Segall’s second double album to date, but the first one to truly embrace and exploit the possibilities of the four~sided medium. In essence, this is Segall’s White Album moment, a scrapbook of the singer’s many guises, along with a few new ones, too — check the sleazy drum~machine disco of “Despoiler of Cadaver” or the T. Rex~goes~to~E.-Street swoon of “My Lady’s on Fire.” Recorded piecemeal with various line~up configurations in five different cities, its most remarkable quality isn’t the whiplash~nducing, track~to~track variation — it’s that each song works as both a crucial unifying thread in the overall patchwork and as a stand~alone statement.
•♠• In marveling at the sheer volume of Segall’s discography, it’s easy to overlook his growth as a writer. He’s often slotted alongside peers like Thee Oh Sees and King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard in the pantheon of garage~rockers with exploratory impulses and little regard for traditional promo cycles. But it’s more apt to mention him in the same breath as musicians like Robert Pollard, Ted Leo, or Elliott Smith — expert melody~makers who borrow liberally from the classic~rock canon, but reshape and demystify it in their own eccentric image. And on Freedom’s Goblin, the tuneful sensibility that Segall has been nurturing since 2011’s Goodbye Bread fully blossoms into sky~high hooks and rich, resonant lyricism, all while keeping his primordial spirit intact.
•♠• With the grandiose grunge of “Alta,” Segall delivers an ode to Mother Nature with all the valor of a superhero flick, while the opening “Fanny Dog” could be the most badass song ever dedicated to a household pet, summoning a brass section to pummel its rumbling riff into submission. But the album’s ugliest moments only enhance its prettiest: The burning fury of “Meaning” is immediately extinguished by the wistful George Harrison tribute “Cry, Cry, Cry”; the lecherous fuzz of “Shoot You Up” is chased by the cosmic, falsetto~cooed folk~rock of “You Say All the Nice Things.”
•♠• As the latter song unsubtly suggests, Freedom’s Goblin is an album made by a guy who’s clearly head~over~heels in love — Segall and Denée married just over a year ago, and through that lens, the “Every’s 1 a Winner” cover sounds less like a cheeky lark than a genuine expression of devotion. But if Freedom’s Goblin was born of a honeymoon period, it’s one where the room~service trolley becomes food~fight ammo, and TVs get tossed out into swimming pools. Even the album’s most unruly turns — like the guitar solo on the motorik metal of “She” — project an exhilarated, anarchic joy that sustains the album’s momentum until its great payoff: the penultimate “5 Ft Tall.” Here, Segall delivers the totemic power~pop knockout that he’s been working toward his entire career, the sort of hair~raising, roller~coaster rocker that you could imagine a contented Kurt Cobain writing.
•♠• Following that glorious peak, you can forgive Segall for indulging in an extended comedown. As the closing “And, Goodnight” begins its slack, Crazy~orsed lurch, it appears we’re in for 12 minutes of improvised guitar skronk. But when Segall’s vocal comes in just before the three~minute mark, it’s revealed that this is no random jam, but an extended, electrified cover of the title track to his 2013 psych~folk opus, Sleeper. It’s a song Segall originally wrote for Denée one night as she was dozing off, but it served as the surreal, dreamlike portal into a deeply meditative album where Segall addressed the death of his adoptive father and subsequent estrangement from his mother. This new version feels even less like a romantic reverie and more like all the intervening years of pent~up sadness and frustration being unleashed through Segall’s scorching fretboard runs. It’s an intensely sobering conclusion to an otherwise intoxicating album and a reminder that Segall’s ascent from garage~punk hellraiser to consummate rock craftsman over the past 10 years hasn’t been without its trying times. But Freedom’s Goblin is ultimately a celebration of Segall’s aesthetic and emotional freedom — a definitive capstone to the first decade of a scuzzy, heartfelt songwriter nonpareil. •♠• https://pitchfork.com/
Also:
Rob Hakimian, 26 Jan, 2018 / Score: 7.5
•♠• https://www.thefourohfive.com/music/review/review-ty-segall-both-thrills-and-confuses-on-the-over-stuffed-freedom-s-goblin-151
Bandcamp: https://tysegall.bandcamp.com/album/freedoms-goblin
Label: http://www.dragcity.com/
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