Welcome to the Leicester Bangs Blog - check regularly for arts and music news, occasional previews and lots of reviews. Find out what's on at Leicester's Musician Venue with our daily update, and follow us on Twitter @LeicesterBangs
Saturday, 21 January 2012
Robert Pollard Announces New Solo LP, 'Mouseman Cloud' Out April 3rd On Guided By Voices, Inc...
Support UK Charities by using our AMAZON links – and it wont cost you a penny.
Details here: http://www.leicesterbangs.co.uk/charities.html
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Robert Pollard's new solo album Mouseman Cloud shows the Guided By Voices frontman in a playful and spontaneous mood. This is a record by a guy who just wants to rock, and not have to worry about how that rock will be received by anyone other than himself. While the songs here are not a world away from anything you'll find on GBV's Let's Go Eat The Factory, the emphasis onMouseman Cloud is on wordplay rather than melody, on unkempt exploration rather than trad song structure. A lot of the tracks sound as if they started as lyrics – even poetry – first, and were fit around the sounds, which is not an uncommon way for Pollard to work, but the album's gleeful verbosity could be interpreted as the work of a man who's maybe been feeling the pressure of expectations from (for instance) a Guided By Voices reunion and just wants to cut loose.
Recorded in collaboration with producer/multi-instrumentalist Todd Tobias, Mouseman Cloud is catchy, heavy, lovely, rocky, exuberant, complexly simple and freaking wonderful. Not sweating the small stuff is not the same as taking no pains over the writing and recording — too often the two are conflated when discussing Pollard's prodigious output. He takes pains. He edits. He cares deeply about each and every part of each and every song he records. That he seems to do so frequently and effortlessly is not his fault. It's a unique and unparalleled talent. Mouseman Cloud is the work of a consummate craftsman as well as a crazy genius, and proof that these two traits are not incompatible.
http://robertpollard.net/
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.