Ty Segall & White Fence, Hair (side A)

White Fence's 2010 self-titled debut impressed me enough that I've continued to follow his work.  Hair, which is my first exposure to Ty Segall, still captures Tim Presley's songwriting and arranging talent, but it lacks some of the ambition that made the debut special.  Presley's songwriting voice is obvious here—references to the psychedelic 60s are filtered through a more contemporary lo-fi aesthetic.  Where artists like Brother JT or Strapping Fieldhands emphasized their outsider, record-collector personae, Presley and Segall ooze fashion and slickness.  Hair loses the broad palette and range of ideas that made White Fence special—the weaker points even sound alike and interchangeable.  Some songs combine a slack aesthetic with a keen attention to detail that makes them special, but at other times the slacker persona grows overwhelming, as if they rushed to finish the album and get on tour.  The packaging captures the record's personality perfectly, to a point where it feels obsessively stylized.  The lo-fi sound quality has charms, but in some ways it can also sound bad—a professional mastering job did nothing to tame the out-of-control treble.