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MAGNET
By Fred Mills

Think of the catch phrase "Can't hear the revolution!" as raising the bar within the Guided By Voices universe, and expect the unexpected. To wit: Kid Marine, Robert Pollard's third solo opus, which earns "most valuable player" status in several fronts. First of all, the 15 songs are indisputably not GBV leftovers (an accusation leveled at his other two solo records), and they do rock out; "Television Prison", just to name one, is two minutes of pure, brutal, sustained crunch. Secondly, the album coheres from start to finish not unlike the Who's A Quick One, commencing with a stunning psychedelic overture ("Submarine Teams") and going on a shimmering, suitably moody denouncement ("Island Crimes"). Most importantly, the payoff for the listener comes in how this quasi-concept set (about war and conflict) just gets better with each spin.