Ty Segall's Chrome pulls a five-piece band back into the room with fuzzed twin guitars, bright keys and drums that hit with real weight. Emmett Kelly shares guitar and vocal duties, Mikal Cronin handles bass and voice, and Evan Burrows drives the kit, with Ben Boye adding piano and keyboards. The guitars trade lines rather than simply piling up, moving from proto-punk charge to glam flash and grunge heft. Segall's voice stays rough and dry against it all.
The songs move quickly between big riffs and more oblique passages, with social unease and dream imagery threaded through titles such as “Running to Nowhere,” “Separation” and “Everything You've Been.” Cooper Crain recorded and mixed the album with Segall, giving the playing a clean, close presentation without sanding off the fuzz. Chrome arrives through Drag City, from a Los Angeles artist who's been making records since 2007, and it has the kind of band energy that should appeal to fans of Television, Blue Öyster Cult, The Adolescents and Crazy Horse. Anyone looking for polished indie rock may find the sharp turns and hard attack a little much.
