Robert Pollard
Coast to Coast Carpet of Love and Standard Gargoyle Decision
(Merge, 2007)

There’s a telling moment in the supremely annoying press release sent along with the two new Robert Pollard albums, written by James Greer (who, among other things, played bass in Guided By Voices and wrote a supremely annoying biography in 2005 of Pollard and the group). Pollard, asked to account for his inexhaustible and erratic output of music, responds:

“It’s like this.” He leans across the table just far enough so we have to lean, too, and our tie goes right in the flan.

“Fuck you,” he whispers in our ear.  

These two albums, released separately but on the same day, are a not-so-whispered “fuck you” to critics and fans who’ve complained about Pollard’s prolificacy. The anecdotes are well-known at this point: Pollard has claimed he can write five songs on the toilet, and three of them will be pretty good. He currently has 1,005 songs registered at BMI (John Lennon and Paul McCartney have only a paltry 63 and 45 songs registered, respectively). The critical dings against him are also well-known: a lot of his songs can feel pointless, and many of his solo albums seem to be aimed squarely at fanboys and OCD completists.

Taken together, the two albums are 33 songs, many good, some terrible, and some merely okay. Both albums find Pollard doggedly sticking to form: quick bursts of songs (only two out of the 33 tracks top three minutes, and both of those just barely do), guitar-centered pop and prog-rock, and Pollard’s unique lyrics, a blend of the absurd and the tossed-off profound. While the clean production will disappoint those who long for the lo-fi hiss and crackle of classic Guided By Voices, there’s still plenty of off-kilter pop goodness to be found here—it’s just that you gotta dig for it.

Coast to Coast Carpet of Love is the poppier of the two albums, and has the lion’s share of the good stuff. “Our Gaze” starts off as a GBV-era rocker, including a nice guitar ramp-up. “Customer’s Throat” is centered by a rock-solid opening hook that Pollard rides admirably. “Miles Under the Skin” is a mellow semi-ballad, with Pollard edging the closest he’s come to cheese since “Hold On Hope” before dancing away with a wry chorus. “Slow Hamilton” is a sympathetic portrait of a grey-skinned guy trapped in the “Apathy he lives / Trivial points and names that I bet you think you know.” “Life of a Wife” is another empathetic portrait, featuring Pollard’s sure-footed vocal melodies.

There are some serious missteps as well. “Rud Fins” starts as a swinging summer-tinged jump, but the ending chorus find’s Pollard straining for a note he can’t reach, his vocal chords showing their age (Pollard recently turned 50) and more than a decade of constant touring. Part of the thrill has always been listening to Pollard’s ragged everyman voice pull off some amazing acrobatics, but the thrill has also come from watching Pollard stick the landing. “What Words Mean Exactly” also shows Pollard’s vocals under stress, and fails to go anywhere.

Standard Gargoyle Decision is the more rocking, proggier side of Pollard, and contains more of the missteps. That said, the songs that hit are also stronger than most of what’s found on Coast to Coast. “Folded Claw” is a classic Pollard ballad, with gently strummed guitars moving underneath his voice. The opening electronic slap of “Pill Gone Girl” is sneering, cocksure rock music done with a wink. “I in the World” is the kind of oblique rocker that Pollard pulls off so well, as is “Shadow Port.”

But the missteps on are, for me, wincingly bad. “Hero Blows the Revolution” stumbles quickly from quirky to goofy. “Butcher Man” has Pollard coughing out some sort of weird Tom Waits-ian gruff that does no favors for the song behind it. “Motion Sickness Ghosts” is essentially one musical phrase repeated for two and a half minutes. “Here Comes Garcia” is another goofy rocker, with a baffling shouted chorus.

Taken collectively, the two albums contain a collection of good, sometimes great, songs with a lot of filler. It’s still frustrating that Pollard places the onus of figuring out which songs are good on his audience. Even while working as essentially the sole songwriter for Guided By Voices, Pollard put out a staggering amount of music, but there was a sense that he was reserving the best, catchiest stuff for his flagship brand. I wouldn’t suggest that Pollard resurrect Guided By Voices (as he pointed out in a recent interview, by the time he retired the name, over 60 people had been in the band at some point), but there might be some merit in Pollard at least starting up a new band. His Suitcase series of unreleased songs used bunches of fake band names that are up for grabs, including such gems as Huge on Pluto, Edison Shell, and Hot Skin Apartment—maybe he could use one of those?

Listen:Various Tracks [at myspace.com]