With Ty Segall and White Fence’s new LP, Hair, Segall and Tim Presley set out to create a a lo-fi, nostalgia-rock record. The music isn’t any departure for both artists, as both have certainly made a name for themselves in the very muddled garage rock scene. On Hair, Segall and Presley certainly accomplish what both have been good at for the past few years, and collaboratively play off of each other well. Each song pulls you through the record as though you’re at a high school party in the early 70‘s and it’s introducing you to all of its friends (who are really, really stoned). However, the results don’t push either artist beyond their own previous work. By the end of the album, the listener is left searching for the common thread that pieces together 7 songs that seem to meander to a conclusion without ever establishing any real consistency.

The opener “Time,” sets the stage for the songs on the album that drift through 4 minutes without ever getting off the ground. While the title of the song is clever (being that it is the opener to an album dedicated to reversing time and revisiting a different era of music) “Time” is a complete let down. The song stutters and misfires, never hitting the kind of groove (or even aggression) a listener would expect from a nostalgia driven lo-fi rock album.

A couple of songs on the album, such as “Scissor People” and “I am Not a Game” perfectly embody what both artists are capable of and nail everything that is fun about a garage rock record: fast paced, familiar and yet new, and the kind of songs that you can imagine absolutely blasting when you’re drunk.

Overall, Hair disappoints on a couple of different levels, but succeeds in creating a few tracks that deliver on the promises of garage rock. It’s biggest flaw is that it meanders far too often for 30 minutes to meet the expectations of a garage rock record ala Japandroids or Wavves. They let too much time go by expanding on ideas in songs that in a lo fi aesthetic have no need to be played out. The other disappointment is that Segall and Presley do have the ability to make an album that establishes consistency, and blows the listener away for 30 minutes. Hair, unfortunately is not that record.

Hair is out now via Drag City.  Order the record here, and have a listen to “I Am Not A Game” at Stereogum.