Customer Reviews

Normal Happiness

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I was initially disappointed my first couple of listens through this CD. But, I kept coming back to it because of "Boxing About" and 'Pegasus Glue Factory." Now, I can't stop listening. Just a wonderful set of tunes! Give it some time and perhaps you, too, will find this to be most satisfying!

This album full of "pop songs" has precious few recognizable choruses and one of Bob's most understated vocal performances on record. What it does have is a meandering, complex style that is as likely to baffle as to entertain. Underneath the whirl of bizarre chord changes there are some really great songs.

The second release in a calender year, and it's better than the first! If you are a newcomer to Robert Pollard, I'd suggest this or Speak Kindly Of Your Volunteer Fire Department. Also out there from Merge/Luna is Moon. Live from mostly FaCE, it is probably the best live cd ever.

This and "From A Compound Eye" clearly represent a new beginning for Mr. Pollard. The end of Guided By Voices was not merely symbolic and this is definitely not just "more of the same." Pollard has finally integrated his pop and prog impulses into a cohesive new approach, and the results sound simply incredible! By prog, I only mean more complex song structures, but somehow his incredible pop sense and interesting lyrics always redeem the songs before they can become just complexity for it's own sake. The songs take many twists and turns but there's always a memorable chorus in there. Best songs? "Towers and Landslides", "Give Up the Grape", "Rhoda Rhoda", "Get A Faceful" and several others. I'll even go out on a limb and say that these first two are among the best songs he's ever written. Lyrics are strong as always, and somehow seem to be simultaneously more abstract and topical than normal. For instance, the strangely titled "Pegasus Glue Factory" contains the line "his doomed ship apocalypse dissolved in his hands; of twenty thousand rivers of oil slicks and blood" which can easily be deciphered in light of an earlier line, "I hide myself in dream from Howdy Doody's terrorist regime"! Not making any political statements here, just saying there are some deeper messages (as always) lurking beneath the surface.
As an overall listening experience, I think this is the best Pollard release since "Speak Kindly of Your Volunteer Fire Dept." If you're not a super fan, you may not agree with all of this praise and the five star rating, but I honestly think this is one of the best albums Pollard has ever assembled. The last one was great, but this is even better!

Armed with a back catalog of almost numbing scope, Pollard continues to churn out songs as if his life depended on it. Though not as immediately gripping as this spring's From A Compound Eye, Normal Happiness has its share of great tunes like "Supernatural Car Lover." Unfortunately, the album doesn't seem to really hit its stride until the outro of the last track.

Though there has been a slow shift from scratchy lo-fi to hi-fi guitar heroics, when considered in microcosm Pollard's work could benefit from a more varied approach. On its own, Normal Happiness stands up quite well as a rock album. When considered alongside Pollard's umpteen other solo albums, Guided By Voices albums, and the Fading Captain series however, Normal Happiness blurs and disappears. Even longtime fans will find themselves not caring anymore what he is saying, as his "cryptic" lyricism has long since lost its novelty on all but the uninitiated. If you like Robert Pollard, get this album safe in the knowledge of what you're getting -- more of the same. For all its strengths, it is a bit of a letdown though: because they are the exact same strengths displayed on all his recordings. This unfortunately reduces Normal Happiness to facile water-treading for Pollard.

Being a HUGE Guided By Voices/Robert Pollard fan, I had read in an interview in 2005 that he had two albums in the can at that point : From A Compound Eye and Normal Happiness, which he called his poppy album. Well, I immediately got it when it came out, and like a lot of GBV fans say about a lot of his stuff, I was initally perplexed/disappointed. This wasn't the Hollies or whatever the hell I was expecting! I shelved it and went back to Under The Bushes Under The Stars and other trusty melodic rock gems.

Well, it took a little while, but the 'ol Bob Boomerang Theory happened. It came back and hit me upside the head, and now I would easily call this one of my Top 5 Robert Pollard solo works. It does seem to run out of gas near the end, but the first 2/3 of the album is killer. Love the 'real' reel to reel sound, and the arrangements which at first seemed willfully weird and impenetratable have rooted themselves in my brain. ESPECIALLY "Get A Faceful", which is just transcendent and full of purpose. There's a lot of diversity in this one (acoustic & electric songs), and he's not just being perverse (which he CAN be guilty of sometimes) - it does finally click. It's just full of melody and character. Love the whole sound/feel of "Boxing About", with the keyboards coloring in the sky. Todd Tobias is just a bad a## with the soundscapes - he adds that extra dimension that Bob might not have thought of.

Absolutely worth getting, in my opinion. I would have given it 5 stars, but there's a few songs near the end that are not essential. I got it on vinyl too, which I only do if I love an album. So there you go.

I admit I am an uber-fan, but this album really deserves a high rating. I wonder if the people who gave this a one or two star rating gave this disc enough of a chance. Bob's recent solo works seem to require a few listens before they really sink in. And when they do sink in - you're in for a treat! My favorites include "Give Up the Grape", "Tomorrow Will Not Be Another Day", "Rhoda Rhoda" and quite a few others. Actually, I think "Join the Eagles" is the only weak track here. Overall, this is another solid effort from misters Pollard and Tobias. Keep churnin' 'em out guys.

Critics have been saying Bob has been treading water for years, and now I too am ready to get off the Pollard train at the next station. The problem with this album can be found in the album credits: Todd Tobias on lead guitar/additional guitar/bass/keyboard AND drums? As Bob's "producer for life", Tobias has allowed Bob to comfortably settle into a bland mid-fi sound that has absolutely zero character.

Pollard's GbV and Fading Captain releases were always hit and miss, but even his worst albums had a couple of fist-pumping classics to bolster the throwaways. These days (starting with Earthquake Glue and onward), the lows aren't as low, but the highs aren't as high, and Bob has now become BORING. Hey, the man still has talent, check out the Moping Swans album that came out several months ago, which benefits from having an actual guitarist, bassist and drummer. Unfortunately at this stage of the game, Bob seems content to serve as singer and lyricist in the Todd Tobias Project. Yecch. In the meantime, I'll be playing Kid Marine or something.

It's a very depressing moment when one of your musical heroes turns in a poor album, but if I'm honest with myself I'd have to admit that it is only inertia that has kept me buying his increasingly lacklustre efforts over the past three or so years. 'Normal Happiness' is the first Pollard release where after multiple listens I haven't connected with a single song, nor found an infectious melody the like of which were previously sprinkled liberally throughout his oeuvre. The problems are threefold: the production is uniform and flat, lacking in warmth; gone are the walls of rock guitar and reverb-soaked vocals of old, replaced by a kind of clinical blandness perhaps the result of this being practically a one man effort (Todd Tobias) in terms of instrumentation rather than a real band. Then there is Pollard's voice, which is at times just plain awful - off-key or with increasingly bizarre deliveries that just don't come off. Finally, the songs themselves: as well as the lack of any 'instant hits', the riffs seem to me to be uninspired. The lyrics too, are bland, and lacking in Pollard's former ability to make stream of consciousness word play into poignant and evocative verbal pictures. He sounds bored. Perhaps he has just had enough of writing infectious melodies and, Picsasso-like, is trying to deconstruct his songs to find new forms of musical expression. On the 1997 Guided by Voices album 'Mag Earwhig' there was a track entitled 'Sad if I Lost It' - I'm sorry to say that I think he has.

I rarely do write up reviews on Amazon and I felt it was my obligation to tell anyone who happens to read this review to tell them that this cd is lousy. Wow, where do I begin, I have been a GBV fan for 10+ years and have seen Bob and his boys in concerts many of times. There are so many cult classic GBV songs that come to my mind when I think of Pollard and this cd makes me wonder if the ability to produce one more gem may never happen again. This cd makes EMO look good, it has no melody, no witty stream of conscious lyris, no Who-esque "Sell Out" riffs...there is nothing possitive to say. It is total rubbish.