Tim Presley’s new album, the man behind the alias White Fence, is his best record to date. With the collaboration of his great friend Ty Segall as producer and on drums, Tim leaves behind the experimentation of previous works, so close to collage and pure lo-fi, and gifts us a collection of crystal-clear and polished-sounding songs.
The lo-fi remains, but, making conciseness a virtue, the new tracks don’t wander through long intros, transitions, or guitar solos: the essence of the songs is distilled. Snapshots of garage, psychedelia, and power pop trace the imaginary family tree that runs between The Byrds, Lou Reed, Syd Barrett, Marc Bolan, and Yo La Tengo (so noticeable in “So Beautiful”, the unexpected cover of Simply Red).
Among the collection, “Your Eyes”, “I Came Close, Orange for Luck”, and “That’s Where The Money Goes (Seen From The Celestial Realm)” stand out, the latter opening the album with the priceless line “I’ve just had an experience with God”. Thematically, love and loss take center stage alongside his opioid addiction and subsequent rehabilitation. The creative crisis it caused him can now be considered over.
An album of killer pop, in his words, in which Tim Presley perfectly assembles melodies and instrumentation naturally, like a great craftsman, to build a solid set of timeless songs.