Goodbye Bread

Goodbye Bread is to lo-fi workhorse Ty Segall what Bee Thousand was to Guided By Voices: it's fundamentally not that different from the California native's previous work -- maybe a little less aggressive, certainly slightly better-recorded -- but the small changes between this and earlier albums like Melted are just enough to bring him within sight of the indie-rock mainstream. Still only in his early 20s, Segall is an avowed rock-and-roll historian: he's repeatedly cited '60s scuzz-rock pioneers The Troggs as a key influence, his limited-edition Record Store Day release for 2011 was a vinyl EP of relatively faithful T. Rex covers, and the high end of his vocal range at times bears a startling resemblance to primal scream-era John Lennon. But while Segall's previous albums showed flashes of those musical obsessions, Goodbye Bread is the first time he's explored them in such depth. Not to say that these 10 songs are specifically derivative of classic rock, simply that tunes like the shaggy "Fine" (reminiscent of the Fun House-era Stooges tackling one of the gentler songs from the Beatles' White Album), the downright wistful title track and the concert-singalong-ready "I Can't Feel It" mix their indie hipster cool with some unapologetic stadium-accessible moves. The unbelievably adorable cover shot, a close-up of a droopy-jowled bloodhound that would make even a dedicated cat fancier squee, deserves equal praise.