ROBERT POLLARD
NORMAL HAPPINESS
MUST DESTROY

ROCKSOUND
By Hardeep Phull

Less than a year since his first post-Guided By Voices solo album, his royal pissed-ness (AKA Bob Pollard) has returned with another 16 songs that he probably rattled off in the commerercial breaks during Desperate Housewives. The thing is, the vast majority of them are little guitar-pop diamonds that still beg the eternal question: how does he do it? Of course, the spirit pf his old band inhabits every second of "Normal Happiness", but that is neither a surprise nor a dissapointment because the likes of "Boxing About" and "Rhoda Rhoda" bleed melody and radiate charm. Anyone can be prolific but only Pollard can do it this remarkable level of quality almost every time.