Ty Segall
Freedom's Goblin

This decade has chosen its star: the 1987-born Ty Segall. Having crossed the threshold of his thirties and after a decade of intense activity and especially prolific in terms of record production and live performances, Ty Segall can be considered the true rock icon of our times. Year after year, he has established himself with the force of a cyclone as the cultural model for an entire generation: this is evident both in the content of his songs, the sound and writing of the lyrics, his garage attitude, and the way he presents himself in public. He engages and lets himself be engaged in a multitude of projects and collaborations. Starting with the partnership with his alter egos Mikal Cronin and John Dwyer. Fuzz, Wand, Sic Alps, GOGGS... these are just some of the projects and bands he has been part of over the years. A homo novus belonging to a generation that has finally broken down all barriers between those who make music and the listeners, Ty Segall is Syd Barrett and Daniel Johnston, Kurt Cobain and Beck Hansen, and at the same time, he is ahead of all these music giants and even if looking at him one might think he is not aware of being so talented, I am convinced that he knows exactly how things stand.

His latest studio album (the tenth as a solo artist) "Freedom's Goblin" (Drag City Records) constitutes another visionary work from an artist instinctive like few others in rock music history and capable of moving comfortably in writing distinctly rock tracks but tinged with a certain irony and power pop nuances like "Fanny Dog", "Every 1's A Winner", "When Mommy Kills You", "Alta", "Shoot You Up" and the splendid "5 Ft. Tall" and others more distinctly garage where he shows all his shouting abilities: gems like "Talkin 3" where the garage fury mixes with the sound of brass in a highly effective noise frenzy (see also "The Main Pretender", "Prison"); experimental pieces like "Meaning" or "The Last Waltz" and especially the acid funk of "Despoiler of Cadaver". The album is loaded with references to the more acid sound of the sixties and the more psychedelic Beatles: songs like "Rain", the acoustic rock ballads "My Lady's On Fire", "Cry Cry Cry", "You Say All The Nice Things" elevate this latest musical effort of Ty Segall to the rank of the "White Album" of the tens of this new millennium and the final "And, Goodnight" appears to us as the sum and definitive consecration of his genius.

We can think of other acid and visionary artists of the past like Frank Zappa or Captain Beefheart, but here instinct prevails over technique, nature over science: it is as if Ty Segall, instead of putting all the pieces of a mosaic in their place with the wisdom of a Renaissance artist, has instead thrown them all on the ground and quickly assembled them in the way that seemed most congenial to him: the result is songs destined to last through the years.