Robert Pollard Albums (17)
What The Critics Say
Has Robert Pollard been reading his reviews lately? The back cover of 2009's Elephant Jokes, the fifth album Pollard released that year, features the blurb "Another big batch of Robert Pollard songs, a new nadir in patience and delicacy," suggesting he's become aware of the not-uncommon complaint that he's more interested in quantity than quality. But truth to tell, Pollard's joke has been attached to the wrong record: Elephant Jokes sounds more like a Guided by Voices album than anything Pollard has done in quite a while, which is to say the tunes are short, energetic, and hooky as all get-out and he dives into them with a full head of steam. The album was cut using Pollard's now standard working method -- Bob singing and playing guitar; Todd Tobias recording, producing, and handling the rest of the instruments -- but the results suggest Pollard put a bit more thought into his guitar playing, with a larger portion of joyously aggressive slop making its way into the final mix than listeners have come to expect, and though Elephant Jokes still doesn't perfectly replicate the sound of the members of a full band bouncing ideas off one another in the studio, it comes much closer than most of his post-GbV work. And as for the songs, Elephant Jokes is just consistent enough that perhaps Pollard actually threw away a few less than worthwhile tunes for a change; the wordplay is thoroughly cryptic, as usual, but there's actually some sort of point to "Things Have Changed (Down in Mexico City)" and "Hippsville (Where the Frisbees Fly Forever)," and the primitivism of "Jimmy" and "Symbols and Heads" is enough to make you think the man has rediscovered his four-track cassette machine, and likes it. Sure, Elephant Jokes is another big batch of Robert Pollard songs, but it harks back to a time when most smart pop fans could hardly ask for anything more. ~ Mark Deming, All Music Guide
'The Crawling Distance'
Release Date 1/20/2009
Tracks 10
Label Guided by Voices
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What The Critics Say
In the final years of Guided by Voices' existence, it became clear that the band was for all practical purposes Robert Pollard and whoever else he decided was a member of GBV (confirmed after Pollard fired the rest of the group and hired Cobra Verde to take their place prior to the recording of 1997's Mag Earwhig!), so when Pollard retired the band at the end of 2004 and relaunched himself as a solo act in 2006, it shouldn't have made much of a difference. But it did -- where once Robert Pollard albums were idiosyncratic detours from Guided by Voices' exercises in lo-fi pop genius, now the "real" albums and the chaff were all mixed together, and as Pollard's stack of solo albums grew, they became increasingly unfocused, covering the same stylistic territory over and over again with the law of diminishing returns taking its inevitable toll. In 2008, Pollard seems to have finally realized he'd taken a wrong turn and needed some fresh directions -- he parted ways with Merge Records, the primary label for his post-GBV work, formed a new label called Guided by Voices Inc., and released his first album for the new imprint, Robert Pollard Is Off to Business. While there's clearly a dash of wit in the title, it also feels like a statement of purpose, as Off to Business is a more potent and strongly unified album than Pollard has made in quite some time. Oddly enough, this album doesn't represent a change in Pollard's working habits -- like nearly all his post-GBV work, the album was produced by longtime studio cohort Todd Tobias, who also plays all the instruments while Pollard handles the vocals. But instead of tossing out 20 or so half-formed tunes, as has often been Pollard's habit, Off to Business features a mere ten songs into which he seems to have put some genuine thought, and the album has a coherent flow and melodic grandeur that suggests the latter-day Who, bolstered by Tobias' intelligent use of keyboards and forceful but well-punctuated guitar figures. In most respects, Off to Business doesn't break much new ground for Pollard, but what is different is that he's clearly put a great deal more thought and care into this disc than anything he's put out since From a Compound Eye, and the result is an album that sounds like an album rather than the latest bunch of tunes Pollard banged together, and that makes all the difference in the world. ~ Mark Deming, All Music Guide
'Standard Gargoyle Decisions'
Release Date 10/9/2007
Tracks 17
Label Merge
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
It's been more than 20 years since Robert Pollard made his first record as leader of Guided by Voices, and given the steady flood of material that's he's been releasing that band broke out of regional obscurity in the mid-'90s (over 30 albums with the band and as a solo artist to date), there's little arguing that Pollard has thoroughly worked out his songwriting formula. Pollard himself once quipped that he could write six songs while using the toilet, and that three of those would even be good, but the trouble is that very few people can crank out material that way for very long without either repeating themselves or starting to sound rote, and this sort of creative entropy seems to be creeping up on Pollard as evidenced by his 2007 album Standard Gargoyle Decisions (significantly one of two albums Pollard would release the same day). Standard Gargoyle Decisions leans toward the noisier and more outré side of Pollard's musical personality, and certainly rocks harder than its sister set, Coast to Coast Carpet of Love; there are a few corkers on board, in particular the garage rock stomper "Psycho Inertia" and the swaggering neo-glam "Motion Sickness Ghost," while fans with a fondness for Pollard's lo-fi tendencies will appreciate "Come Here Beautiful" and "Butcher Man." But most of this album falls into the same melodic patterns Pollard has been reworking for years, with sloppiness posing as inspiration, and haphazard lyrical obscurity taking the place of having anything new to say, and hard as Pollard and producer/multi-instrumentalist Todd Tobias try to make this stuff move, it's curiously lacking in sweat or joy. Standard Gargoyle Decisions suggests that next time Pollard heads to the bathroom, maybe he should focus on dreaming up one memorable song instead of a half-dozen that sound like musty rejects from Bee Thousand. ~ Mark Deming, All Music Guide
'Coast to Coast Carpet of Love'
Release Date 10/9/2007
Tracks 16
Label Merge
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
A mere two years after releasing his first post-Guided by Voices solo album, Robert Pollard is starting to sound as if he's already nostalgic for the good old days, and 2007's Coast to Coast Carpet of Love (released the same day as another Pollard solo set, Standard Gargoyle Decisions) recalls the more polished moments of GBV's late period works, especially Do the Collapse and Universal Truths and Cycles. While electric guitars dominate Coast to Coast Carpet of Love, this set finds Pollard firmly in pop song mode, with hooky melodies up front at all times and the frontman showing off his best neo-British Invasion vocal mannerisms. However, while this album comes closer to what made GBV memorable than much of Pollard's solo catalog in terms of songwriting, it also confirms the lingering suspicion that this guy needs a band. Coast to Coast Carpet of Love was recorded with Pollard handling lead vocals and some guitars, and Todd Tobias covering all other instruments (as well as engineering and production), and the results lack the fire and energy that would transform these 16 songs into something special. The lack of interplay between musicians and the absence of anyone to prod Pollard into a more aggressive and emotive performance makes this disc sound like a set of polished demos that are waiting to be transformed into a living, breathing rock & roll record; not much is missing besides a certain ineffable energy and commitment, but it's enough to make this the sort of record that will make you want to spin the GBV "hits" compilation Human Amusements at Hourly Rates rather than play Coast to Coast Carpet of Love again. ~ Mark Deming, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
During his days in Guided by Voices, Robert Pollard established an informal two-tier system for his record releases -- his "real" albums were released through an established label (usually Matador, lately Merge since GBV's breakup), while his more esoteric or home-brewed recordings would surface through one of his tiny boutique labels, such as Rockathon or Fading Captain. Prom Is Coming is Pollard's latest outlet for his seemingly endless well of pop songs, but PIC's first release, a seven-song EP called Silverfish Trivia, suggests the gulf between his official product and his more informal material is narrowing considerably. Silverfish Trivia is one of Pollard's most ambitious recent projects, complete with lush layers of keyboards and actual string arrangements, and while fans have grown accustomed to Pollard's second-string projects sounding tossed together, this is as coherent and powerful as anything he's released since retiring the Guided by Voices banner. Musically, Silverfish Trivia plays like a concept piece -- while there doesn't appear to be a unifying narrative outlook (given Pollard's cryptic lyrical style, it's a bit hard to say), the prog-influenced melodies flow together beautifully, the instrumental passages that bookend and punctuate the piece create a sense of movements rather than individual tunes, and Todd Tobias's production balances Pollard's impulsive songwriting techniques with a sound that builds his pocket-sized pop tunes into something truly epochal. Hopefully Pollard and Tobias will keep Silverfish Trivia in mind next time they go into the studio to make a full-length album; this is a compelling and thoroughly engaging piece of music that plays to Pollard's strengths while demonstrating he still has new fields to explore. ~ Mark Deming, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
After putting Guided by Voices to rest at the end of 2004, Robert Pollard launched his "official" solo career with the epic From a Compound Eye in early 2006; however, the wildly prolific Pollard waited a mere ten months to release a follow-up (which was recorded sometime in 2005), and Normal Happiness finds him working in noticeably more modest circumstances. Like From a Compound Eye, Pollard made Normal Happiness with longtime collaborator Todd Tobias, who produced the album and played nearly all the instruments, ably building the tracks around Pollard's vocals and guitar. However, while Pollard was trying to make the Great Rock Double Album with Compound Eye, Normal Happiness is more in the tradition of his best work with GBV -- sixteen short songs (only one over three minutes, seven under two), with plenty of hooks, lots of guitar and no more fuss than necessary. Tobias' production is far cleaner than the hissy lo-fi of Bee Thousand, but the lean and uncluttered accompaniment here is certainly in the same family, and allows the virtues of Pollard's tunes to show through (though GBV never had this much new wave keyboard work). Pollard does seem to be making a genuine effort to mature as a songwriter with more structurally ambitious songs such as "Gasoline Ragtime" and "Full Sun (Dig the Slowness)," but "Supernatural Car Lover," "Rhoda Rhoda," and "Towers and Landslides" show he hasn't turned his back on the muse that fueled his earlier work, and he can still make guitar-based pop songs with a hard rock core with the best of 'em. In short, to paraphrase Keith Moon, he's still the best Robert Pollard-style songwriter alive today, and Normal Happiness confirms he hasn't lost touch with what he does so well. ~ Mark Deming, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Robert Pollard pulled the plug on Guided by Voices in 2004, but by that point many fans won over by the band ten years earlier had long stopped paying attention. And who could blame them? Sometime around 1999, just when GBV leapfrogged from Matador to TVT and made their second attempt at a big rock record, Pollard's solo albums started piling up at an alarmingly rapid rate, along with box sets of GBV outtakes presented under invented band names. Sure, the solo records, billed as part of the never-ending Fading Captain series, were intended to be a clearing-house for experimental material that couldn't quite fit on the increasingly streamlined GBV albums, but the sheer avalanche of material wound up seeming like little more than white noise to those unwilling to devote nearly all their free time to sorting out the minutia within Pollard's vast, cumbersome discography. It also didn't help that despite all this music, it didn't seem that Pollard was taking great leaps forward: instead, he was refining and sharpening the blueprint introduced to the world at large with 1994's Bee Thousand, the record that saw him catapult out of Dayton, OH, and into the realm of cult legend. Legendary status suited Pollard well, but his ceaseless productivity diminished his status, pushing him to the fringes of the fringes of indie rock. He could have existed there forever, but he wanted to break out of the band -- or at least, he wanted to jump-start his career, to bring disenchanted listeners back into the fold by breaking up the band and giving his career a fresh start. And so, From a Compound Eye, roughly his eighth solo album, but the first that was consciously intended for a wider audience. Although it was released in January 2006, the album had been completed for a long time, since the waning days of GBV, and saved until 2006, when an appropriate amount of breathing time had passed between the band's demise and the launch of a solo career -- enough time to make those listeners who had long ago given up on the band interested again, with the solo album, band biography, and DVD of the final concert all hitting the stores within a month of each other. For the hardcore, the fact that this album was designed as Pollard's first ever, long-awaited genuine double album -- constructed and sequenced as if its 26 songs were spread over four vinyl sides -- was supposed to be the selling point, along with its heavily hyped pre-release buzz on the Internet (as well as Jim Greer's official biography). So does From a Compound Eye live up to its multiple promises? Yes, to a degree. For those who abandoned GBV around Mag Earwhig! or Do the Collapse and thereby missed the band's latter-day renaissance upon their return to Matador, this is a good reintroduction to the world of Robert Pollard. It's comfortably familiar, equal parts affected British psychedelia and British Invasion hooks, with his prog rock heart pierced by his enduring affection for Wire-patterned weirdness and blasts of Who-styled rockers. Pollard's songwriting is more focused, and producer Todd Tobias -- a former GBV keyboardist who also helmed Bob's 2004 Fiction Man the way he did this, by overdubbing all the instruments himself after Pollard laid down his guitar and vocals -- fills out the sound, giving this a rich, fully realized sound, not only in comparison to GBV's lo-fi records, but also to their muscular latter-day affairs. That said, at its core From a Compound Eye ain't all that different than the seemingly thousands of other Pollard-related projects -- it's still a rush of songs heavy on hooks but not coherence, interesting sounds that never quite seem to lead anywhere, enigmatic lyrics that never quite withstand scrutiny. On the surface it sounds great, yet it leaves little behind. And, once again, Pollard's dogged determination to push himself to the limits of self-indulgence means he winds up with too much of a not-bad thing. By the end of From a Compound Eye, his circular melodies and swirling songs are a bit exhausting, and the ballyhooed double-album sequencing doesn't have any discernible benefit to the album itself: in terms of time, it may run longer than any other Guided by Voices album, but Alien Lanes is two songs longer than this, and Pollard's fractured style and never-ending stream of songs always make his records feel like double albums, even when they clock in at 40 minutes. All this means that From a Compound Eye winds up standing apart from the pack of Pollard projects even if it doesn't stand that far apart. It sprawls, but most individual tracks are full and focused, taking his art-pop to grand, cinematic scale, even if it plays more like a collection of short films than an epic picture. For those who have stuck with Bob through his ups and downs and piles of CDs, they'll be more inclined to find the connecting line between these tunes, particularly since it does serve up a fair amount of great Pollard songs (such as "Dancing Girls and Dancing Men," "Love Is Stronger Than Witchcraft," and "Lightshow") along with more sonic detail to get lost in than any of his previous albums. And those are all good reasons for those who have gotten off the train to use From a Compound Eye as a reintroduction to his work, but for as good as this is in long stretches and small doses, it ultimately suffers from the Pollard curse: too much pop in miniature winds up sounding like minutia. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
It was the spring of 2004, and since it had been nearly a month since Robert Pollard had released any new material, the mondo-prolific Guided By Voices leader decided it was high time he released another solo album, and so he turned to his frequent collaborator Todd Tobias -- occasional GBV keyboardist and producer, and member of one of Pollard's numerous side projects, Circus Devils -- for assistance. For Fiction Man, Pollard wrote the songs and handled the vocals, while Tobias was the producer and played all the instruments. If you're figuring the results sound like more of Pollard's smart, arty, and angular pop music, you'd be right as rain -- stylistically, Fiction Man lives in a middle ground between the joyously lo-fi grit of Alien Lanes and Bee Thousand, and the more muscular and rock-oriented approach of Earthquake Glue and Isolation Drills. Tobias' one-man-band arrangements manage to sound surprisingly organic in this context, and his ideas are admirably eclectic, from the graceful float of "Sea of Dead" and the big rock swing of "It's Only Natural" to the frenetic new wavishness of "I Expect a Kill." But while Fiction Man features 14 pretty good Robert Pollard tunes, there aren't any great Robert Pollard tunes, which is of course what always separates the wheat from the chaff in his ever-expanding body of work. In short, if you're a lifetime member of the GBV Army, Fiction Man will do nothing to change your mind about the frontman's genius, but it won't do much of anything to alter the opinions of the unconverted...then again, wait a month and maybe he'll have something else for everyone to listen to instead. ~ Mark Deming, All Music Guide
