Kid Marine
Robert Pollard   
Rockathon/recordhead

A true Guided By Voices fan will guess immediately that this solo project from GBV leader Robert Pollard is a quickie: Look at that album cover! It's got to be the most ornate of any GBV or Pollard album, with none of the usual cut-and-paste craftsmanship. Fortunately, Kid Marine - a time marking album while Pollard finishes the delayed GBV opus Human Amusements - could best be described as breezy rather than half-asses. Famously prolific, Pollard says he spends a typical Saturday in his basement with a pot of coffee and a stack of vinyl, trying to write as many ditties as the records will inspire in him. Kid Marine represents a solid batch: a few flashes of outright brilliance, nothing embarrassing, and plenty of warmth. Pollard's Brit-accented, '70s-prog-gone-indie-pop remains intact, as well it should - several GBV members including Tobin Sprout and brother Jim Pollard, guest on the record, ensuring rich sounds on tracks like "Flings Of The Waistcoat Crowd." Few of the song titles stand out the way Pollard's normally do, but "Far-Out Crops" recalls the out-there weirdness of GBV's Bee Thousand. Pollard has subtitled the album "#1 In The Fading Captain Series," but that's too self-deprecating; on recent albums, GBV may indeed have "faded" from the brilliance of its mid-'90s output, but Kid Marine shows Captain Pollard hasn't totally winked out.