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Jan 22, 2016Segall has such control of the chaos on Emotional Mugger that once you’ve reached the halfway point you’ll realize that you were never doubting him--because as he’s developed as a songwriter, he’s grown more adventurous and even more dependable. The bigger the catalog, the better.
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Jan 21, 2016To call Emotional Mugger a celebration of excess, as sweet as it is, would miss the mark. (Although it’s no veiled warning, either--it enjoys itself too much.) No, this is a bender with an undercurrent of anxiety.
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Alternative PressJan 8, 2016Prepare to be blown away.... Emotional Mugger is an out-of-this-world psychedelic venture meant to be listened to--and listened to very loud. [Feb 2016, p.98]
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MagnetFeb 12, 2016Though there’s nothing too saccharine on Emotional Mugger (even the line “I want your candy” on “Breakfast Eggs” is more of a threat than a statement of desire), the melodies are some of the strongest Segall has ever turned out. [No. 128, p.56]
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Jan 19, 2016He's at his strangest, loud, absurd best. With his ninth studio album under the Ty Segall guise alone since 2008, he both parodies and masterclasses modern day garage rock.
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Jan 20, 2016This album is yet another testament to that seemingly insatiable desire for provoking, for poking and for pulling the wool over the eyes of his audience.
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Feb 1, 2016Throughout Emotional Mugger’s 39-minute runtime, Segall is comfortably out of step, abandoning the pop refinement of Manipulator to creative self-sabotage with some of the more album’s more electrified moments, which, while highlights, don’t constitute the bulk of the album.
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Jan 28, 2016Here's a record that shows an innovative appropriation of sound that makes for one of the most exhilarating and original albums he's ever done.
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Jan 22, 2016Emotional Mugger is a wild-eyed beast of a record; unafraid to stamp through the effects pedals with a delirious glee.
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Jan 21, 2016After a few listens, hidden melodies reveal themselves and easy-listening bass lines guide you through the ruckus. Or rather, you get used to the disorder and appreciate the songs for what they are: weird experiments from a prodigal songwriter.
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Jan 20, 2016There's nothing mild about Emotional Mugger; it has an overwhelming sense of madness, but it's addictive nonetheless.
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Jan 19, 2016It overcomes the safe. Emotional Mugger proves it’s still possible to evolve as an artist within the relatively limiting framework of rock traditionalism, even if the answer is to crank everything up to new extremes, give way to violent stylistic mutation, and completely deconstruct whatever’s comfortable.
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UncutJan 8, 2016Emotional Mugger is as funky as it is twisted--a heavy rock record that truly groves in a way that heavy rock rarely does any more. [Feb 2016, p.85]
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Apr 18, 2016The main two highlights are the strutting “Mandy Cream” and the bass-heavy closer “The Magazine,” with rapid-fire handclaps coming in during the choruses and a sustained falsetto melody recalling Yes’ “We Have Heaven.”
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Jan 20, 2016Segall’s output over the last decade is proof that making music is truly its own reward for some artists, and over the course of 11 songs and 38 minutes, Mugger epitomizes that passion like no album of his before it.
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Jan 19, 2016Emotional Mugger still feels transitional--either the moment before he tucks in and gets way weirder or another stepping stone before he switches gears all over again.
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Jan 27, 2016Despite at times being muddled, Segall is not afraid to stand up and confront the audience, evoking the most visceral of feelings and pushing the boundaries of comfort. Divisive, but all the more brilliant for it.
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Jan 27, 2016Emotional Mugger is a stiff shot of raw, cocky joy that hits its target beautifully.
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Jan 20, 2016It's hard to analyze Segall's music without thinking about his reputation as a studio rat, but Emotional Mugger is an enjoyably warped deconstruction of buzzy guitar rock.
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Jan 20, 2016Emotional Mugger is a nastier street-punk version of his Manipulator approach, with a touch of Royal Trux sleaze in the low-end guitar sludge, running the conceptual gamut from "Squealer" to "Squealer Two."
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Jan 20, 2016Sonically, Emotional Mugger lands somewhere between all of these records [Manipulator, II, and Ty-Rex], maintaining the cohesion and (relatively) streamlined arrangements of Manipulator but nodding to the scuzzy ’70s hard rock of the latter two and Segall’s trademark haywire, lo-fi garage.
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Apr 28, 2016Time signatures change gears with neck-snapping regularity, underpinned by Cronin's Krautrock bass, and a Devo-esque "concept" involves Segall as a masked, Booji Boy-ish character named Sloppo.
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Jan 21, 2016Although Emotional Mugger isn’t a bad record--Segall probably doesn’t have one of those in him--it’s among his weakest releases yet.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 43 out of 48
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Mixed: 2 out of 48
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Negative: 3 out of 48
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Jan 25, 2016
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Jan 22, 2016
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Jan 26, 2016