If you don’t like one Ty Segall album, another one will be along in a minute. It’s two months since he released his collection of Marc Bolan covers, Ty Rex, which itself came just weeks after the second album by his power trio, Fuzz. Given that he appears to regard any music recorded outside a period beginning in late 1966 and ending sometime around 1972 with the deepest suspicion, he has managed to build up a confoundingly huge catalogue without ever truly repeating himself. That’s all to the good, but it does mean those who loved his last solo record, Manipulator – on which Segall appeared to be offering his most presentable, tuneful face to the world – might sigh a little at Emotional Mugger. Gone is the poppy directness of that record; Emotional Mugger squeals and shouts, an unruly child of an album, all sharp elbows and hyperactivity. He’s got tunes when he wants them – Candy Sam, in particular, is terrific – but it’s an uncomfortable, dissonant record, a bad trip rather than a mellow high.
