Robert Pollard Is Off to Business

After two decades of music making at an unheard of level of production — his boxed sets have boxed sets of outtakes — Robert Pollard, solo or with Guided By Voices or any one of his one-off side projects, isn’t about to surprise anyone with anything other than his uncanny ability to find yet one more pop melody that he hasn’t already sung. In this case there’s the majesty of “The Blondes” that slows his manic approach just long enough to unveil a stately melody and solid harmonies that emanate from a 1960s pop that never actually existed, but was reinvented sometime in the late-70s / early ‘80s by the Soft Boys and a number of other retro-punks. At ten tracks, with most passing the three-minute mark, this is the closest to a conventional album Pollard has put together in some time. And its conventionality is what actually gives it an extra edge. Pollard sounds focused. And by not drowning his ideas in too many other ideas, tunes such as “1 Years Old,” “Gratification to Concrete,” and the sprawling lament of “Confessions of a Teenage Jerk-Off” actually stick out.