ROBERT POLLARD
NORMAL HAPPINESS
MERGE

ORANGE COUNTY BUSINESS JOURNAL
BY MARK MUELLER

"Normal Happiness" is this year's second solo release from Dayton, Ohio's Robert Pollard, the uber-prolific cult rocker with more than 1,000 published songs to his name. The quantity isn't affecting Pollard's quality. "Normal Happiness" is one of the catchiest pop albums you'll hear this year. Pollard has focused on brevity. The 16 up-tempo pop songs of "Normal Happiness" fly by in about half an hour. Fans of "Revolver" era Beatles and mode era The Who should like the music, which is a bit more accessible to the casual listener than Pollard's last release, the sprawling, double-album "From A Compound Eye." The vibe of "Normal Happiness" remains similar to Pollard's early work with former band Guided By Voices. But this album aims for consistency that his groundbreaking lo-fi stuff never really focused on. Highlights include "Rhoda Rhoda" and "Supernatural Car Lover."