White Fence - Orange Review
On Orange, White Fence returns with a warm, wistful psych-rock record that feels lovingly handmade and deeply human.
After seven years without a release, Tim Presley is back as White Fence with a new album, Orange. Debuting in 2010, the artist was influenced by everything from dancehall to reggae to rap, and got his start in a hardcore punk band. Since then, he’s gone from strength to strength, with this most recent album grounded in classic-sounding alt-rock psychedelia. Fans will be glad to see that Ty Segall joins him once again; the pair collaborated on the beloved 2018 album Joy, and Segall has produced for White Fence in the past, this time around bringing his skills on the drums and mixing the record. In this, his eighth album as White Fence, Presley shows an openness and a confidence that make it all worth the wait.
Opening track ‘That's Where The Money Goes (Seen From The Celestial Realm)’ sees a slow build of steady guitar picking create an immediate impression of how the album will feel: tender and wistful. A drawl not unlike Morrissey’s comesin over the 70s summer-sounding instrumentation, as though the listener is being invited to lie back in a grass field. Ironically, the almost-titular song, ‘I Came Close, Orange For Luck’ is reminiscent of The Lemonheads, with its honest twang, and at other points in the record, comparisons to the Velvet Underground wouldn’t go amiss. Its reverb turns near-psychedelic, and the day slips away.
Presley himself explained that upbeat ‘Your Eyes’ is about “Love/loss, addiction/rehabilitation, and a good long look in the mirror […]. But also the absurdity of life..... I wanted to sing my little heart out. Sing life.” To this effect, the album is lyrically heartfelt, playful, and at times, broaches a distilled optimistic nihilism. Presley’s roots, having formed psychedelic band Darker My Love in 2004, all combine here, in a record that could only have been crafted by someone with years, decades of experience. Alice Sandhal’s synths sing on ‘Unread Books’, just as if not more slow and comforting, more lazing and gentle than the previous tracks. acceptance tinged with disappointment. But it’s ‘I Wanted a Rolex’ that steals the show, its sound earnest and plodding. It feels like the kind of track you might hear as a kid, on a stray radio or in your Dad’s car, that sparks a lifelong love of music. “It takes a loving hand to settle me down, it takes a loving hand,” Presley sings, and the crux of the album makes itself clear: life may be absurd, but there will always be love.
If the alt-rock wave of the 70s was a response to ‘corporate’ rock, and a movement towards simple, DIY sounds, perhaps this album could be seen as a response to the hyper-manufactured or AI music of the 2020s. It feels like an authentic trip back half a century or so, a timeless soundscape that many struggle to replicate so well. Regardless, on Orange, White Fence’s anticipated return has delivered what his previous acclaim promised.