Choreographed Man of War
Sigh. I can't believe I went and bought another
one. I mean what is my tolerance level here? I think this makes
number five in a solo career that runs in parallel with his
fulltime job as front man for Guided
by Voices. It seems right from the start that Pollard has
actually done some editing on this album, trimming the track
count to ten (about half the normal runtime). I gotta say, though,
I don't love this album. I know it's supposed to be some of
his most mature work, but I've proved time and time again that
I don't go for mature. It's almost too dense for me. The vocals
are too buried in the mix, and there sounds like there are too
many people in the room. I guess I'm just getting tired of the
shtick at this point, or the songs aren't the little nuggets
they once were. He feels almost as thought he's trying too hard
to not be that guy anymore. |
From a Compound Eye
I really did give up trying to track Pollard's
solo stuff after Choreographed Man of War. That album
felt like a good spot on which to sever my loyalty and take
a break from the Fading Captain Series and the Douchebag on
a Cliff series and the whatever he felt like tooling around
with that week series. It just felt like the man was dumping
all his boxes of old tapes on us and charging us to help clean
out his closet. I'm not sure what brought me back into the fold
with this one, but I suppose it was the demise of GBV
and my longing for just one last blast of Pollard. I think that
rest did me well, as some of the stuff on this album (despite
it being way too long at 26 tracks) sounds different from where
I left off. Sure there's still the
Beatles/Who obsession, and the lyrics that make about much
sense as an old Cronenberg movie, but he does mix it up a bit
since my last exposure, mixing in some time signatures and swings
in tempo and production quality. Shit, the song "The Right
Thing" could have been a Live song
off of Throwing Copper or something. He even shows
a softer side on a few songs, and delves into some darker stuff
as well. It makes me happy to at least hear some variation here,
some new sounds and a kind of growly thunder that he seemed
to be missing on previous efforts. There is a song on here that
reminds me of Steely Dan' "Rikki Don't Lose That Number,"
which kind of scares the crap out of me, but whatever. |
Kid Marine
This album starts off with "Submarine
Teams," which features some sort of weird thing going on
throughout the song that sounds like some crazy person shivering.
Amazingly it works in the wacky world of Robert Pollard, and
is a really decent song. In fact a lot of songs on this record
have stuff going on in the background, and all of it isn't tape
hiss. Three albums into his solo career (while still putting
out GBV albums), Pollard
has dialed back the homemade thing somewhat in favor of crafting
fully fleshed out songs. The one issue that has plagued him
throughout his career is the flame out syndrome of starting
a song really strong and then it just kind of going up in smoke
ninety seconds in. He's like the songwriting equivalent of a
Saturday Night Live skit. It seems here he's trying
to actually present songs, and not just quickly scribbled good
ideas. |
Normal Happiness
Wow, it's the new "peppy" Robert
Pollard. Sunshiny and ready to rock ‘n roll. Of course he's
just as obtuse as ever, with tittles like "Supernatural
Car Lover" and "Pegasus Glue Factory," but the
album itself somehow feels more coherent. It could be the good
mood that Bob has all of a sudden found himself in, or just
the overall tone of the thing, but it's certainly a departure
from his normal sequencing. I do dig the production better here
too. The wall of sound crunchiness has faded away, and left
the music and Pollard's voice to speak more for itself. Gone
is all the gimmickry, too, letting the good stuff bleed through.
This is his most listenable solo album so far (and it only took
eight tries). There is one song, "Gasoline Ragtime"
that sounds oddly Police-like
to me, and kind of freaked me out a little bit the first time
I heard it. Sure it ain't arty and deep, but this is actually
a pretty good little sunny pop album. |
Not In My Airforce
Amazon
It's always difficult detangling Robert Pollard
from GBV. I mean they are
one and the same. So what happens when the man that is the band
goes solo? And what happens when the other man from said band,
Tobin Sprout, also releases
a solo album at the same time? The temptation is to compare
the two solo albums against the band output, and then against
each other. Who was the real talent here? It turns out, of course,
it's impossible to tell because Pollard was so tight-fisted
about song writing on the GBV albums that Sprout's voice was
all but drowned out on those records. Listening to Not in
My Airforce, Pollard's debut solo record, we still hear
a lot of Alien Lanes GBV going on. Little pop ditties
buried in home recording quality hiss, and lots of subdued guitar
plucking. This is a decent intro into the ever expanding mind
of Robert Pollard, and is probably one of his better solo records
for those fans of the older GBV stuff. |
Speak Kindly of Your Volunteer Fire
Department
Whoa, did Pollard actually use a professional
studio for this one? There has been a general trend towards
cleaner production with each of his solo efforts, and this,
his fourth, sounds, dare I say, almost professional. It's not
like the guy has gone all Radiohead
on us or anything, but it's nice to actually be able to hear
the bass in his tracks for once. Of course with the fuller sound
comes some loss of intimacy, but this is a guy who's always
wanted to be Roger Daltrey (with the leg kicks and everything)
so there was no way he'd shy away from the stadium sound forever.
Again, I can't imagine any of these songs being played for a
packed Wembley Stadium or anything, but even baby steps for
this geezer is an amazing act of contrition to a lifelong fuzzmaster.
One does wonder at this point how he chooses what goes on the
GBV albums versus what gets
the solo tag. Of course the parallel GBV album at this time
was Do the Collapse, which was produced by Ric Ocasek
(complete with his keyboards and shit), so it's not like this
record sounds even close to as polished as that one. I think
this, however, was where I started to wonder when the hell he
was going to stop pumping out these albums. My patience for
spending money was wearing thin. |
Waved Out
Amazon
Another album of Pollard doing his thing.
This, his sophomore solo effort, is a little less hissy than
his debut, having a more fleshed out sound, but still following
the same Ohio by way of England lo-fi guitar rock vibe with
nonsensical lyrics and a definite feeling that he's enjoying
himself. He even tries to rock it out stadium style (albeit
in a lo-fi kind of way) on "Subspace Biographies,"
which is not a bad bashing rock song if I do say so myself.
Pollard also clearly has a "Norwegian Wood" era Beatles
fascination that busts out on certain songs, but then quickly
hides behind another straight-up rock song. He even experiments
on this one with some oddball noises like on "Whiskey Ships"
(a song that reminds me of Archers
of Loaf for some reason) where there's some sort of bizarre
stereo huffing going on. It's a solid output, but still feels
like a bit of an extras thing. |
Musical Connections:
Airport 5
Guided by Voices
|
Booze
& Grub
Hipster
Movie Reviews
Hipster
Book Reviews