Coast to Coast Carpet of Love (Dig)

Robert Pollard | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 9, 2007)
• Original Release Date: 2007
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Merge Records
• ASIN: B000VDDBGG
• In-Print Editions: Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #144,832 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Some people collect stamps or dolls or baseball cards. There are others, though not as many, who collect Robert Pollard songs, and it's more and more evident that amassing the Pollard goldmine has become the most time-consuming hobby. Seems that every time you look up there's another record--either by Pollard or an alias--from the ex-Guided by Voices pilot, and this time he celebrates birthday 50 with two brand-new slabs of music spilling out on the same day. Where its bookend Standard Gargoyle Decisions is said to side more with Pollard's glam-rock-and-roll persona, Coast to Coast is cut from the same power-pop cloth as GbV classic cuts "Shocker in Gloomtown," "Game of Pricks," and "I Am a Scientist." Sixteen songs, 16 different hooks to reel you in, from the jangling purr of "Our Gaze" to the love-struck diffidence of "Current Desperation (Angels Speak of Nothing)" to twin psychedelic nuggets "Pnumbra" and "Youth Leagues." Since his much-adored band closed down, it seems that nothing has changed for Pollard, who endures as the perpetually prolific, massively tuneful, beer-swigging king of pop. --Scott Holter

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not his finest, April 21, 2010

By 

World Contributor (Norway) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Coast to Coast Carpet of Love (Dig) (Audio CD)

This is one of only a few Pollard-records which failed to connect with me. The songs are a bit too anonymous and the sound is too "kind". The album does have a coherent feeling but gives the impression of Pollard trying to make a laidback album.

Only on the underrated Miles Under The Skin we get a sense of the intensity and greatness of Pollards songwriting.

Starters into Pollards solo-career should check out Normal happiness or From A Compound Eye.

2.0 out of 5 stars Definitely not his best, December 2, 2009

By 

Chris Carter (my music room) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Coast to Coast Carpet of Love (Dig) (Audio CD)

My favorite tracks on here are the simplest ones, "Miles Under The Skin" and "Slow Hamilton". "Our Gaze" is a fine opener, but honestly, I think he's trying to make complicated progressive rock/pop, and some of the best pop, and this applies to GBV too, is the simplest stuff. That's what resonates with me anyway. There's no need, in my opinion, to over-arrange songs that would work better if they had 25 less chords/changes in them. You know? Ultimately, it seems like music from the head rather than the heart. Not much memorable here.

3.0 out of 5 stars Good, but not Great, April 5, 2008

By 

Concrete Dovetail (Groningen, Netherlands) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Coast to Coast Carpet of Love (Dig) (Audio CD)

This is definitely not the Bob album to start with. It's not bad, just not representative of the world's greatest artist compared to his other albums. I really like some of the songs like Youth Leagues and I clap for Strangers Now but feel that they're missing a certain edge that is present in most of his music. I blame this mainly on the production. In the same way that the song "Hold on Hope" didn't work many of these songs suffer, (but are not completely lost). This kind of album from Bob is ok every now and then. I just hope he's not being hijacked by that crowd where every guy in the bar is scrawny and has a haircut that says "I rock, but I don't rock too hard".