Joy

The unbridled rock & roll force that is Ty Segall met up for the first time with the warbly psychedelic wanderings of White Fence for the first time on 2012's Hair, a fine distillation of the pair's strengths. Segall and White Fence's Tim Presley forged a sound that reined in Segall's sometimes excessive energy and gave life to White Fence's often precious music box renderings of '60s excess. Since they made that record, Segall has gone on to expand his sound into something almost arena friendly, while Presley has gotten weirder and more unpredictable with his solo work and other projects including Drinks with Cate Le Bon. The duo's reteaming on 2018's Joy tilts the scale toward weirdness with many songs that are odd snippets of sound, lots of Presley's obtuse guitar lines and lyrics that sound like they were left out in the sun a little too long. For the most part, the record works like a charm, with the sometimes gleeful, sometime ominous White Fence psychedelic strangeness adding creepy tendrils that capture Segall's frenetic energy and drag the songs into unexpected places. The gothic vocal harmonies of "Body Behavior," the squiggly guitar solos on the very John Entwistle-sounding "Good Boy," and the looping drums that buoy "A Nod" are little bits of left-field arrangement tricks show how well their styles can mesh. There are also times when Segall's innate swagger gives the songs an extra boost, like on the insistent rocker "Do Your Hair" or the sly folk-rock tune "My Friend" that ends the album on a high note. ~ Tim Sendra