Over the past decade, Californian Ty Segall has been defined as much by his Stakhanovite work ethic as for his knack for melding melody with power to breathe fresh life into garage rock. His first album of 2017 has plenty of the sort of fuzzed-up riffs that made 2014’s career high-water mark Manipulator so intoxicating, but for once his best songs are also the most intimate. The tender Talkin’ and Orange Color Queen have more in common with the late Elliott Smith than the Stooges, both benefiting from the uncharacteristic lack of distorted guitar. Even better is the expansive, unhurried Papers. The meandering midsection of Warm Hands is a slight misstep, but this is another impressive addition to Segall’s canon.
