Robert Pollard - Space City Kicks (2011)

In the midst and hype of a full on Guided by Voices reunion (actually it's wound down, I believe), Pollard slips this one in during the first few weeks of 2011. With the majority of songs under 2 1/2 minutes, this is quite similar to his "Elephant Jokes" in terms of brief tunes. No mini prog epics or longer, slower songs that have cropped up on recent releases. The first track, "Mr Fantastic Must Die" sets the tone quite well...This album is going to have its share of psych weirdness, which Mr. Pollard has normally been reserving for his Circus Devils project. In fact, songs such as "Picture a Star", "Children Ships", "Gone Hoping", appear to be part of the larger Circus Devils catalog in tone and feel. Even among these strange and brief songs, Pollard has managed to infuse tunefulness into the odd structures and lyrics, so that is why the opener, "Mr Fantastic Must Die" works, actually. These psych nuggets are woven into the tapestry of Space City Kick's pop gems - "I Wanna Be Your Man on the Moon", "Blowing Like a Sunspot", "One More Touch", "Something Strawberry", "Stay Away", and "Touch Me in the Right Place At the Right Time" - these are classic Pollard pop songs, and bring us back to an era where his songs didn't linger for long before you were thrown into another minute of pop bliss, or something more darker and foreboding. "Space City Kicks" is a thick crunchy rocker with some sweet power chord heroisms at the tail end, so kudos to Pollard's collaborator, Todd Tobias for adding some truly interesting details to the album. At first listen, this album goes by quite quickly, and in a somewhat confused state. But Mr Pollard is known for being quite particular about sequencing. And if you sit with this record and listen from end to end, it reveals its own strange and sweet logic. This is not a place to begin with Robert Pollard solo career, but if you are an ardent follower of his songwriting, this will satisfy your desire for some new songs until his next release.