ROBERT POLLARD
FROM A COMPOUND EYE
MERGE

HARP MAGAZINE
FEBRUARY 2006

By Steve Hyden

Done with Guided By Voices, Pollard embarks on a true solo career

Robert Pollard lost his band but not his ambition. From A Compound Eye, Pollard's first solo album since retiring Guided By Voices, finds the prolific ex-schoolteacher continuing his quixotic quest to re-create Genisis' "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" with a few drinking buddies and cheap studio equipment. Success depends on how long you have beenonthe journey with him. At 26 songs totaling more than 70 minutes, Compound Eye is the most sprawling thing Pollard has ever produced, and also the densest. There are no easy pop hooks a la Bee Thousand or Alien Lanes to grab hold of. In fact, there aren't hooks of any kind, ("Love is Stronger Than Witchcraft" comes closest.) Pollard has two muses, and this time it's Wire instead of the Who. Longtime riders of Pollard's wavelength will dig on another drunken tour through Pollard's classic rock sensibility. For the rest of you, remember that Robert Pollard albums are like buses: Another will be around in 15 minutes.

WEBMASTERS NOTE : APPARENTLY THIS REVIEWER MUST HAVE RECEIVED THE COPY OF COMPOUND EYE WITHOUT DANCING GIRLS AND DANCING MEN, THE RIGHT THING, US MUSTARD COMPANY, BLESSED IN AN OPEN HEAD ETC ETC ETC