Send "Robert Pollard " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Popmatters |
 When Robert Pollard put the seminal Guided by Voices to rest in 2004 his detractors most likely never assumed his recorded output would continue to multiply like a wet Gremlin with each passing year. Six years after the dissolution of the brand upon which he built his intimidating legacy, Pollard remains as restless as ever. After reaching the realization that no record label of any stature would ever be able to handle his terrifyingly prolific output, Pollard launched his own imprint, GBV Inc., in 2008, enabling him to release new material whenever the mood strikes him. Those following the story already know that the mood strikes old Uncle Bobby frequently. With 2010 already deeply mired in another Pollardian deluge, one has to wonder where the unassuming Moses on a Snail will find higher ground. The album, Pollard’s second full-length album in less than six months, is bound to be remembered as this year’s morose middle child. Anytime Pollard releases an album with less than 20 songs, it causes small stir among his faithful. Moses on a Snail features a modest 12 tracks yet it’s certain to confound listeners upon first approach as it contains few hallmarks of your average Pollard release. There’s no cheeky lo-fi pop, no droning art rock, no anthemic arena rock, and little in the way of memorable choruses. Here, Pollard has set out to create an autumnal classic—a downcast collection of rainy day songs that require repeated listens to fully reveal their charms. It’s an album that demands to be taken out of the context of Pollard’s superhuman release schedule to be properly digested. From the sleepy, ELO at half-tilt welcome of “A Weekly Crow”, it’s immediately evident that Pollard was in a reflective mood the day he woke up and cranked out this entire album. He can’t seem to shake off his gloominess and as a result the first half of the album initially feels like one long slog. Pollard is working with songs of the similar length and tempo, which means there’s no schizoid, minute long interjections to separate the lumbering “You Lie Like a Dog”, from the plodding “Ice Cold War”. There are few songs that utilize the classic verse-chorus-verse song structure so it’s easy to miss it when Pollard gets the knack. As expected, there are bursts of goose bump-inducing, hook splattering pop sprinkled in between grey moments like the bleak “How I’ve been in Trouble”. Only someone with a masterful hand like Pollard can extract pure sugar cane out of a few simple notes as he does on “Each is Good in His Own House”. Pollard seems so impressed with himself for hitting the sweet spot that he spends the last moments of the song singing the melody over and over again to wonderful effect. The triumphant “Arrows and Balloons” follows two bright and shiny major chords way up and away into the rock ‘n’ roll heavens....full text |
| Prefixmag |
| Working with a release schedule that, by most standards of the mental health community, officially crossed over into the realm of compulsion in the early '00s, the iconoclastic rock-&-roll lifer Robert Pollard had prepared multiple new releases in 2010 before summer was even in full swing. The 12-track solo album Moses on a Snail, Uncle Bob's ninth overall, was set for release on his own Guided By Voices Inc. label in June. Produced by GBV associate and Circus Devils (another in an inexhaustible line of Pollard side-projects) member Todd Tobias, the album followed another Tobias-produced solo album, We All Got Out of the Army, released in January of 2010....full text |
| Music.is-amazing |
| Has any artist had a run like Pollard since striking out on his own with the launch of GBV INC in 2008? With the release of "Moses on a Snail", Pollard has put out an unbelievable 12 albums in a roughly 2-year span. That’s not including all of the various EPs, singles, and a (third) box set of outtakes and unreleased tracks. Moses On A Snail contains a dozen amazingly strong Pollard compositions. Even for this ridiculously prolific songwriter, this was a notable writing session as 10 of the 12 songs were written in one sitting. As Pollard describes the process, he started with a notebook of working song titles, and penned 22 songs in a single afternoon's creative burst. He discarded 12, and ten songs were picked to later revise and flesh out. He made demos to send to frequent producer / collaborator Todd Tobias, who recorded the instruments before Pollard recorded his final vocals. This batch of songs finds a somber, more reflective, yet ultimately triumphant Pollard on such instant classics as “Arrows and Balloons”, “Each is Good in His Own House”, “It’s a Pleasure Being You”, and the enormous title track “Moses on a Snail” which culminates in a dramatic (and atypical) minute-long guitar lead to close the album. Elsewhere, the elegiac "Teardrop Paintballs" is a seriously heartbreaking melody, and the (dare we call it) mellow opener "The Weekly Crow" reminds us to tell you that there will be a Pollard composition on the forthcoming Glen Campbell album....full text |
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