Six years ago, these two psychedelically inclined West Coast noise-makers collaborated on a previous album, the well received Hair. Since then, Freedom’s Goblin, released last January, has become a career high for Segall. White Fence’s Tim Presley – an ex-punk now into 60s melodicism who did time in the Fall before collaborating with Cate Le Bon – has a calling card in For the Recently Found Innocent (2014), his last White Fence album (produced by Segall).
All of which is to say, the appeal of these garage-rock polymaths may be more easily grasped elsewhere. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly why Joy is merely fine, rather than genuinely exciting; to call it a little scattershot is to miss the point of both collaborators, whose tendency towards free-form wig-outs and abrupt sonic handbrake turns is central to their charm. There are highs here – not least A Nod, a pretty period gem about pleasing nobody, and the surprisingly riveting 30-second interlude Rock Flute, in which two rusty swinging gates gradually align. Overall, however, Joy fails to replicate the shock of the new and for all its effulgent harmonies, a certain gnarly swagger has been lost.
