Hair

When I first heard that Ty Segall and Tim Presley (aka White Fence) had recorded an album together, my initial thought was "Well, of course they did." Two California boys with a shared fondness for vintage proto-punk and psychedelic bliss, they're clearly coming from the same place musically. And the eight-track, not-quite-30-minute Hair not only meets fan expectations, it exceeds them: this could well be the best album either man has yet made. Having a sounding board causes each singer-songwriter to step up his game: the recordings are still shaggy and loose-limbed, but the songs themselves sound a bit more structured and polished: even when "Scissor People" breaks from its folk-rock-on-meth gallop (think "Seven and Seven Is"-era Love) into a kaleidoscopic tumble of tape fragments about halfway through the song, the resulting chaos sounds carefully thought-out. Elsewhere, "I Am Not A Game" finds the perfect midpoint between woozy psychedelic miasma and vintage Who thrust, while the barely-two-minute "Crybaby" transforms Marc Bolan's rockabilly fixation into a clattering noise-pop blast. They really should think about turning this spontaneous collaboration into something more permanent.