[rating=4.00]
The latest offering – and with Robert Pollard I mean what he’s released basically since last night – from the Guided By Voices singer is a rollicking side project called Boston Spaceships (well now main side project) that has a huge ‘60s Brit rock feeling on the lead off “Blind 20-20” that morphs into a sweeter, spacey Beatles-esque romp. Alongside former GBV member Chris Slusarenko and The Decemberists’ John Moen, Pollard is in fine form on the all too short “Juggernaut Vs. Monolith.
Although a lot of this material pales compared to “My Kind Of Soldier,” “Game Of Pricks” and other GBV gems, Boston Spaceships fare quite well on “Speed Bumps” and the heady “Tourist UFO” and its gorgeous Explosions In The Sky-like outro. Meanwhile “You Just Can’t Tell” has a fantastic fuzzy feeling over it that is another highlight as is “Tabby And Lucy” with The Who’s hues coursing through the nugget.
As is the case with most Pollard offerings, this one has a lot of quantity in 26 songs so some are bound to fall off the rails early. Yet even some of these have promise like the few false starts it needs to get “A Hair In Every Square Inch Of The House” off the floor. And “A Dozen Blue Overcoats” has an attractive melancholic feel prior to the obligatory bombast flurry of guitars.
Perhaps the real crowning achievement is the lovable ear candy oozing from “Christmas Girl” that should have you swaying to the horn-tinted bridge. Following that up with the perfect chaser in a foot-stomping title track and again – for some odd reason – Pollard comes up again smelling like beer-soaked roses.
