Ty Segall: Freedom's Goblin
Ty Segall is the hardest-working man in rock, putting out at least one album a year, upwards of two or three on a good year. And yet, while one would think keeping such a pace would lead to stagnation, Freedom's Goblin proves that Ty's in no danger of slowing down; a double LP with 19 songs pushing past the 70 minute mark, Goblin is Ty's longest album yet, and it might be his best. Ty's been getting more Lennonesque with each album, and Freedom's Goblin is his White Album, a stunning, schizophrenic mess that shouldn't work, but is so much better because it does. Ty does his typical noisy punk, he does his John Lennon ballads, he does a surprising amount of T. Rex glammy funk, and it never feels stale or incongruous. We're only a month in to 2018, but already Freedom's Goblin is one of those special albums that only come along once in a long while. Absolutely essential.
Bitchin Bajas: Bajas Fresh
First things first: Bitchin Bajas' third album, Bajas Fresh, has to be in some kind of contendership for dumbest album title award, in a neck-and-neck race with some of the more egregious Little Feat albums. But that's good! There's nothing wrong with an experimental group being self-consciously dumb at times, it breaks up the tedium of dour-faced experimental auteurs whose music demands SERIOUS respect. And once you get into the stunning, shimmering loops of Bajas Fresh, you'll find that there's nothing insincere about the music contained within. Bajas Fresh wears the Terry Riley influence of previous Bitchin Bajas records, and it's great to see a band work in a minimalist framework you don't see too often outside of, say, the more experimental Sonic Youth cuts. In addition, Bajas Fresh has a certain jazziness that wasn't as evident on the group's previous albums, so that you're almost listening to Riley conducting The Necks. Bajas Fresh is a beautiful, soothing, fascinating record that stretches repetition just far enough, giving the listener something to contemplate without becoming dull.
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