ROBERT POLLARD
FROM A COMPOUND EYE
MERGE RECORDS

VIEW MAGAZINE
BY SEAN PALMERSTON


A year after putting his Guided By Voices project to rest, underground hero Robert Pollard returns with perhaps his best solo album yet. Heavily traded through GBV Internet friendly groups for much of 2005, From A Compound Eye sees its official release through Merge Records this month. While it may be surprising to some that Pollard would make the move to Merge, his relationship with the label and their flagship band Superchunk reaches back before Spoon, the Arcade Fire and others made the NC label the coolest indie imprint in the world. In fact, Pollard and Superchunk’s Mac recorded an album earlier this decade under the moniker Go Back Snowball. From A Compound Eye is one of Pollard’s best releases in some time. Recorded entirely with his Circus Devils collaborator Todd Tobias (who also contributes drums, bass and guitars to the album), it offers up 26 new album tracks that range from lo–fi balladry to mid–fi style rockers. All of these contain that natural Pollard flair for strong song structure, energetic vocals and enough interesting musically detours that he never lets his laurels do the talking. Surely to be considered a classic as time goes by, this is exactly the album I wished Robert Pollard would return with. I’m glad he did.