Robert Pollard  

Robert Pollard Is Off To Business

Guided by Voices Inc. 

 
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Robert Pollard is getting older, and it shows. Pollard's 20th (!) solo album is a rather scaled-down affair from previous efforts. During the glory days of the lo-fi garage pop juggernaut Guided By Voices - of which Pollard was the ringleader for 20 years before shutting it all down in December 2004 - albums would regularly run upwards of 20 songs, with said songs fitting strict pop song lengths, and in some cases lasting no longer than a few seconds (the longest song on GbV's greatest hits collection, Human Amusements At Hourly Rates, is 3 minutes and 50 seconds. The shortest is 24 seconds). It was all about brief, beer-soaked guitar attacks, straight from the garage of a former school teacher from Dayton, Ohio. Pollard was the king of his domain.

But that was then, and the early 1990s were a simpler time. Pollard was in his 30s, and Bee Thousand was a rallying call for people who found Pavement too polished and snarky. Now, we have a Robert Pollard that turned 50 last year. Guided by Voices has been on the shelf for almost four full years, and many have felt like that Bob has overstayed his welcome, tossing out ridiculously titled albums (Relaxation of the Asshole, Standard Gargoyle Decisions, Superman Was A Rocker) several times a year, each with insane amounts of songs (2006's From A Compound Eye, for example, had 26 songs). This output has made Pollard's discography extremely difficult to keep up with. His latest offering, Robert Pollard is Off to Business, is his third album this year. Some would argue that Robert Pollard pushes the boundaries of being prolific into just plain being annoying.

But surprises are a plenty, beginning with the length: the album is composed of only ten songs, and many of those songs are around the four-to-five minute mark. The second surprise comes when you actually put the record on. Acoustic guitars! Wistful lyrics about coming to terms with getting old! Strings! FUCKING STRINGS! Try to imagine a Guided by Voices fan who went into a coma around the time that the Under the Bushes Under the Stars record was released. If he or she woke up in 2008 and heard this record, would that person recognize the gentleman singing to them? I kind of doubt it.

Overall …Off to Business indicates the third major era of GbV, coming after the Bee Thousand line-up was all but gone and Pollard hired local Ohio band Cobra Verde to back him up, resulting in the more polished sound of records such as Isolation Drills and the Ric Ocasek-produced Do the Collapse. While hardcore GbV fans often see this era of the band as underrated, this is bad news for casual fans who favor short, loud songs recorded straight to cassette.

Undeniably, this is a new turn in one of the most fascinating stories in the history of American music. This is Pollard's first record on his new label, Guided by Voices, Inc.(essentially allowing Pollard to do whatever he wants). Acoutic-based songs like "The Original Heart" and "The Blondes"? Why not! Cheesy Frampton-esque talk-box effects on "Gratification to Concrete"? Bring it on! Sweeping strings on "Confessions Of A Teenage Jerk-Off"? Odd choice considering the title of the song, but sure, okay!

Luckily, just as soon as we think the old Pollard is gone forever, he reminds us that although his hair is grey and he can't do those Roger Daltrey stage moves very well without pulling something anymore, he hasn't forgotten his roots. "Western Centipede" rocks as hard as anything off of GbV classics Bee Thousand or Alien Lanes, with buzzsaw guitars and wiggy Dadaist lyrics. And despite the eye-roll-worthy pun of the song's title, "Wealth and Hell-Being" brings to close three minutes of British Invasion cool with 30 seconds of what sounds like tape going through a tape recorder. And then, as if Robert Pollard is closing a chapter on his life and diving headfirst into being an old man in a young man's game (Rock n' Roll, in case you didn't already figure it out), the last sound we hear on Robert Pollard is Off to Business is the sound of that tape recorder being turned off.

-Liam Carroll