ROBERT POLLARD
NORMAL HAPPINESS
MERGE

eMusic
By Jack Rabid

The ex-GbV kingpin lightens up and gets poppy

Here's the sunny pop record Pollard promised following his initial post-Guided By Voices solo LP, the stubbornly obtuse From a Compound Eye.Normal Happiness is much more consistent, hooky and, most of all, cheery. The title of "Accidental Texas Who" is a clue, though the Who in question is the light 'n' friendly Who of Sell Out's "Maryanne With the Shaky Hand," "Can't Reach You" and "Tattoo," not the classic rock '70s one. I'd have loved to hear the zippy riffs on these concise, two-minute nuggets cranked out with the elbow grease of GbV's Mitch Mitchell or Doug Gillard. But Pollard is himself an expressive studio player (live, he's too busy drinking and singing to really play). And producer/collaborator Todd Tobias extracts fuss-free, energetic takes, yielding a plethora of gems to place on a Pollard best-of — especially the instant, ringing guitars of "Rhoda Rhoda" and "Tomorrow Will Be Another Day." Normal Happiness takes in nearly every quirky eccentricity Pollard possesses (apart from his largely submerged prog fixations) yet insists on steady songcraft. This happiness is anything but normal.