Robert Pollard

Record review

SXSW Records

Robert Pollard

From a Compound Eye (Merge)

Remember the First Citywide Change Bank of SNL commercial spoof fame? When asked how the bank makes money-making change, the service representative says, "Volume," as if doing enough zero-sum activity will somehow make it profitable. Robert Pollard's post-Guided by Voices solo debut is a bit like First Citywide's strategy. There's a lot of it, and maybe that's supposed to leave you feeling better off. While Pollard's nothing if not prolific, if ever he needed an editor to cut some passages and refocus others, it's here on From a Compound Eye. Typically, Pollard delivers a dynamite EP in the guise of a double LP with lots of filler and nearly-rans, leaving FACE with an average of about one keeper per side: "I'm a Widow," but not "Kick Me and Cancel" and almost exactly the same riff, "I Surround You Naked," "U.S. Mustard Company," with its "Queen of Cans and Jars" opening, and maybe the sole true standout, "Dancing Girls and Dancing Men." It's not a GBV album, and fans would be silly to expect one, but FACE sounds just enough like what die-hards love to obsess over. That might be good enough for the Postal Blowfish crowd, who seem content to adore unconditionally, but not for those with Bee Thousand and maybe not much else. (Saturday, March 18, 1am @ Antone's)

**

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