ROBERT POLLARD
FROM A COMPOUND EYE
MUST DESTROY

CMU DAILY UPDATE

The UK history of Robert Pollard's old band Guided By Voices is an understated tragedy. A school-teacher from Ohio, Pollard spent his spare time writing punnets of immaculate pop songs, which he'd record with his GBV mates on what sounded like tape recorders made from sheep's wool and cheap tissue paper. Despite the radio-friendliness of his songs, radio stations didn't play them, mainly because they were so belligerently lo-fi.

'From A Compound Eye' is Pollard's first album since disbanding GBV, and thankfully he hasn't changed the formula - the album contains a CD-busting 26 songs, most of which have his trademark batty song titles: 'Love is Stronger Than Witchcraft' and 'Fresh Threats Salad Shooters And Zip Guns' to name but two. None of the tracks are conventional - some throw in an extraordinarily catchy chorus ten seconds before fadeout, some feature vocals that sound like they've been shouted into a tin can, and most are filled with ear-catchingly impenetrable lyrics. Despite the disparate mix, the thing's sellotaped together by Pollard's ever-present hollow banshee-sage voice and peppered with the kind of songs that REM or The Beatles might have written but kept locked in a steel box because they were too eccentric and disturbing. At over 70 minutes, it's an album that's best to explore at leisure; the sheer volume of ideas, of music, is staggering and overwhelming. Unsurprisingly, the quality fluctuates, but even the squawky, tuneless ones are never less than fascinating, until you begin to suspect that Pollard songs you don't like say more about your own defective musical taste than they do about his songwriting talent. Playlist your twelve favourite tracks, and you'll have a personalised classic on your hands.