Ty Segall “Hello, Hi” released today, July 22nd, 2022. Drag City Records. It’s my birthday today so it’s pretty awesome that I have Ty’s latest release in hand to spin (we received this preorder a couple of days ago, it includes a cassette of what I assume is the same material on the vinyl edition). In the incredibly small chance that Ty himself reads this: I’m doing much better, three weeks after the stage dive incident at the First Avenue show in Minneapolis. My neck and shoulder are only a little stiff and sore now.

Hello, Hi is a mostly mellow acoustic album (he opened his show at First Avenue with “Good Morning” from Hello, Hi and possibly “Saturday Pt. 1” and “Saturday Pt. 2“). Much of its sound is reminiscent of pre-glam T. Rex when Marc Bolan and Steve Peregrin Took were doing their psychedelic folk thing, sounding like they would be most comfortable strumming a lute around the May Pole. Recorded in 2020 during the pandemic shutdown (the closing song “Distraction” pretty much perfectly sums up those weird months), Hello, Hi feels very introspective, intimate and quiet: many tracks are just Ty alone with his guitar, his voice frequently high and a little warbly as if just at the edge of being overcome by emotion – see especially “Blue” when his overdubbed harmonies croon “you can’t erase the pain.” His cover of The Mantles‘ “Don’t Lie” is lovely and lilting and “Looking At You” is simply beautiful, a little reminiscent of Led Zeppelin’s mellower work, and one of my favorite songs on the record. He does add in some electric buzz and fuzz as the song builds toward its end. My top track is the total, all-out buzzed and fuzzed title track rocker “Hello, Hi.”