ROBERT POLLARD - Normal Happiness Review

If Robert Pollard's early-2006 album From A Compound Eye was supposed to represent his tightening grip on a ridiculously prolific solo career—a move toward favoring quality over quantity, in other words—then what should we make of his late-2006 album Normal Happiness? Especially since, in its own way, it's just as good as From A Compound Eye? While the early record was a massive compendium of what Pollard had learned about rock, Normal Happens is a collection of short, breezy power-pop songs with a lo-fi edge. It's easy to listen to, easy to like....full text Someone who records this much has to be something of a documentarian, so I wonder if Robert Pollard has reflected on how his first year without Guided by Voices will be considered with hindsight. By my own quick count, this is the fifth album he's put out in 2006, and one of those was a double....full text Guided by Voices are now defunct, but leader Pollard hasn't slowed down -- this is his second solo record this year. Happiness sounds like a string of freaked-out AM hits: Songs like "Pegasus Glue Factory" have an appealingly ripe-around-the-edges psych-rock feel, and there's lots of off-handedly charming stuff like the vaguely power-pop "Full Sun." There's also some muddled crap. Pollard could keep this up for a long, long time....full text