Reviewing any album where Robert Pollard has been involved is always a difficult task. The man must literally shit songs for breakfast, he is so prolific that this solo album is on top of the four Guided By Voices released in the last couple of years. Quite where he finds the inspiration, let alone the time, is puzzling but the music world would be a boring place without him.
So what does Pollard sound like solo? Well, pretty much the same as Guided By Voices. A ton of songs which cover the gamut of college rock and psychedelia tumble past you in a blink of an eye. The old adage that you can never get bored still stands as an unbelievable amount of styles run past you and that is in the first ten minutes!
Example: ‘He Requested Things’ opens up as a Weezerish romp (and lest we forget Pollard invented them) only to change into the slow grunge of ‘Circus Green Machine’ which also mixes in flashes of acoustic playing and all in 1:24. ‘Strange and Pretty Day’ slows the pace right down until the 50 second blast of ‘Suit Minus The Middle’ completes a breathless opening.
The whole album follows suit with boredom not even getting a look in. Strangely, Pollard has a knack of making these songs sound longer than they actually are which demonstrates the innate skill he has in writing. If anyone was worthy of an award of some sort then it is he. No doubt he would throw it in the bin and disparage it, but hey, this is rock and roll.
As with all the great Guided songs there are flashes of psychedelia all over this album and it makes you wonder what Pollard could do if he extended the songs past the requisite couple of minutes? It is must be hell trying to review a live performance (note to Editor : make this happen!) as you would struggle to keep up. With five albums in three years along with a massive back catalogue, you could get lost in Pollards work for the rest of your life. And that would be a good thing.
