It’s been a long while since Tim Presley last erected White Fence. Following 2014’s For the Recently Found Innocent, Presley has collaborated with Cate Le Bon on two weird and wonderful Drinks albums. On Orange he returns to working with Ty Segall, with whom he’s released two very fine duo albums, Hair (2012) and Joy (2018). Familiarity with any of Presley’s past output will offer some clues to Orange’s sound, style, and sense of humor — this is psych-speckled garage-pop with dimensions of playful profundity laced within the layers of jangle.
Presley’s first lyrics on the wonderfully titled opener, “That’s Where the Money Goes (Seen From the Celestial Realm),” are “I just had an experience with God,” suggesting a glimpse of revelation. Elsewhere he’s dealing with self-deprecation and disappointment, counterbalancing the upbeat stomp and chime. Immediately after, on the pseudo title track, “I Came Close, Orange For Luck,” Presley’s voice shies away from the spotlight, swimming in echo. Meaning and immediacy drift in and out of focus across the album’s track list, familiar and catchy one minute, wonky and eyebrow-raising the next.
Though the impact of straight-shooting, pop-leaning songs such as “Your Eyes,” “Evaporating Love,” and “When Animals Come Back” is undeniable and addictive, it’s on the slower, more exploratory cuts that Orange radiates its strange, bittersweet brightness. After the opening run of up-tempo tunes, “Unread Books” offers a welcome change of pace with Segall’s stuttering, hesitant drumbeat, culminating in some lovely synth and guitar countermelodies at the end. “I Wanted a Rolex” opens with the killer line, “Called your bluff and rode naked on a horse through the city,” as pitch-shifted echoes sparkle and swim. And though the shuffling “So Beautiful” may be a foot-tapper, it’s laced with the cutting putdown, “You’re so beautiful, but oh so boring / I’m wondering if anyone out there really cares about the color of your hair.”
It’s great to hear Presley and Segall working together again. They clearly have a talent for knocking out this kind of stuff, and Orange is another worthy and replayable stack of oddball tunefulness.
H. Hawkline is Huw Evans (Cardiff, Wales). He's been making music under this moniker since 2010. He's been mentioned a few times on the blog, but "Milk For Flowers" doesn't really sound like his other work as his voice sounds a bit different.
Everything else is the same here - collaborators up the wazoo - Cate Le Bon and Tim Presley play all over this. Joe Jones engineered this (he's worked with Parquet Courts and Aldous Harding).
Finally, as with most things Welsh, I must plug both Super Furry Animals and Euros Childs. I think it's a law. Perhaps similar legislation has been passed regarding any New Zealand act and the name-dropping of Flying Nun.
This is released by Heavenly Recordings (most recently mentioned on the excellent Eyes of Others release).
