MOJO
September 2004
By Stevie Chick

Robert Pollard
Fiction Man
#30 in the Fading Captain Series

Robert Pollard **** Fiction Man (Recordhead)

Fiction Man, the latest of Pollard's solo releases in the Fading Captain series, is more consistent as an album, and, more importantly, it has a spritely, playful air, its triumphs more memorable and daring. Todd Tobias (who also produced HaIf Smiles... ) orchestrates a set that stretches from the frantic, Wire riffing I Expect A Kill, to the fractured folk of Night Of The Golden Underground, to the breathtaking chamber-pop of Every Word On The World, keening like a missing track from Love's Forever Changes.

The creativity displayed on Fiction Man untethered, you sense, by the expectations that made later GBV feel so self conscious proves the Captain has no plans to fade just yet, that he's not Prospero, putting away his magic once and for all.