Normal Happiness

Greg, it seems we both plunked down our hard-earned cash for the same Robert Pollard record. Why don’t we make the most of wearing the same dress to the dance, so to speak, and review this sucker together?   

Here's my two cents: The former Guided by Voices main man’s second solo release this year (and sixth 2006 release overall) finds him in stripped-down pop mode, cramming an astounding array of hooks, bubblegum and left turns into 35 minutes full of two-minute songs. If Cheap Trick had a prog-rock jones and A.D.D., they might sound something like this.

One tune immediately caught my ear: “Whispering Whip” begins with a skidding dissonant riff straight off of GBV’s 1997 release Mag Earwhig but soon catches traction and rocks acceptably. Thank God Rick Ocasek never got his hands on this song, which is emblematic of the entire album in its rush of creative joy. –D.M. Jones

Don Mattingly Jones, it's certainly always nice to know that there are still others loyal to Pollard, sans his GBV costume. I'll start by confessing that my Cheap Trick phase lasted about as long as an average cut off of Alien Lanes. In light of your curious Ocasek comment, I also have to admit that I like the Ocasek-produced Do the Collapse; then again, I like (to an extent) all of the proper studio albums since Vampire on Titus, including From a Compound Eye (Pollard's first "official" studio album this year) and Normal Happiness. Especially Normal Happiness. Lyrics aside, if Pollard came out and said that these 16 beauties were recorded in the GBV Drought of 1998, I'd believe it.

I'm dying to know how you think this lean, mean gem compares to the bloated-but-brilliant Compound. Thinking back to the decent-enough Fiction Man album, I find it amazing that (producer and multi-instrumentalist) Todd Tobias and Pollard are putting out 1,000 or so stellar songs per year. I also can’t help but wonder if this album will be an official return to classic-era Pollard form. (And oh, if you call "Whispering Whip," I'm taking "Serious Bird Woman.") –G.W. Locke

Well, Gee Dubya, what I notice most about this record is its yang to Compound’s yin. Happiness is a reaffirmation of Pollard's pop smarts and willingness to follow his muse, whereas Compound appears in retrospect to be almost a willed effort to show that he had grown out of GBV and had more depth to offer. At first blush, his occasionally silly vocal mannerisms sound like an audibly giddy sigh of relief – having done the heavy lifting with Compound he can now go back to his regularly scheduled Ragu rock-making. Also, producer Tobias is developing into a first-class secret weapon for Pollard's flights of fancy, providing clean and ornate backdrops for the singer's vocal loop-the-loops. The vocals occasionally strain to hit the upper register, but it only serves to remind us that a 50-year-old Pollard is still belting out vital indie rock music.

I wish Pollard could have climbed into a time machine after completing GBV's rocking Isolation Drills and heard this. Maybe he would have expedited the process, and we could have been spared the GBV-by-the-numbers of their later output (not that it was without merit, but it lacks even a fraction of the life shown on this disc). Here's to another six releases in 2007 from the Fading Captain. –D.M. Jones

So, Dungeon Master Jones, it’s been a week or so since we last spoke and I’ve been living with Normal Happiness, a pleasant buzz in my noggin for sure. I feel it safe to say – now after three or so weeks of sturdy listening – that this is one of my all-time favorite Pollard offerings. The top 11 tracks pass by with his usual curious word chains, jangle-prone riffs, popping percussion and 24-hour hooks in as fine a fashion as ever. To name a few, songs like “Boxing About,” “Rhoda Rhoda,” “Accidental Texas Who” and “Gasoline Ragtime” leave me feeling like a trip to Dayton, Ohio with binoculars. “Supernatural Car Lover” is threatening to snag the coveted track one spot on my end-of-the-year mix tape, even.

I must say, however, that there are a couple of lost moments here where I feel like our man is fighting the urge to revert back to the cred-seeking slant he took on Compound. Lucky for us, these songs are, for the most part, stashed in the final minutes of the album after we’ve already dined on a fine feast of indie pop gold. The only real quandary this presents is that Compound, while unquestionably a worthwhile effort, seems poised to walk away with most of the interest I feel Happiness warrants. –G.W. Locke

Postscript: The exchange between Jones and Locke ended when, according to witnesses, a man in tattered clothing purporting to be a warehouse employee from Pollard’s record label methodically located the homes of both reviewers and proceeded to destroy their computers with a sledgehammer. Accounts vary but witnesses agreed they clearly heard the employee muttering, “… Ten more records in the can and he’s not stopping! I got blisters on my fingers!”.   8/10

Written by DM Jones + G. William Locke