Customer Reviews

Superman Was a Rocker

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1 star:		(1)

 

 

The reviews on this site of this particular album are over-selling it just a bit. There is only really one song worth the time on this release. I guess I am what you would call a Robert Pollard fanboy (hate that word), and I own over 50 of his lp,ep,single whatevers and this is the one thing he has released that I would tell everyone to stay clear of.

The packaging of this album gets five stars...Excellence. Pollard hasn't failed to construct a good album layout yet. There's no denial in that...I would purchase this for that alone!

Well, Pollard believes in the disposition of "waste not/ want not" with the great number of mixes, box-sets, and director's cuts of albums released over the past few years. This album is old instrumentals recorded by Bob or previous members of Guided by Voices whether from the late Matador years(Kevin March mostly) or the early basement era (Mitch Mitchell) mostly with new vocals, lyrics, and melodies recorded over by Todd Tobias. The idea is great, and fans of early and mid-90s GbV will love this. This album isn't as strong as say Propeller, but it's just a fun record with interesting intros and outros placed randomly like the radio interview at the beginning of Back to the Farm. The lyrics of the album do not say much and it lacks the power of the recently released solo albums like "Going Off to Business" or the Circus Devils' "Sgt. Disco". Buy it if you're a big fan tho...it's worth it for the memoribilia, art and vintage sound.

Stand outs= "Go Down First", "Substitute Heaven", "Back to the Farm"(Marches' instrumental is really solid too, not just the instrumental), "More Hot Dogs Please", and "Another Man's Blood"

An extremely fun and infectious album that recalls the messy, haphazard, and tuneful EPs that GBV put out in its heyday. Stuff like Clown Prince of the Menthol Trailer, Fast Japanese Spin Cycle, and Static Airplane Jive -- if you even recognize those titles, you will find something to love on this album. Only complaint is that it's too short.

My favorites: "Prince Alphabet," a brief, minimal song with a gorgeous vocal melody, "You Drove the Snake Crazy," a super-catchy campfire ditty, and "Surveillance," a psychedelic fever dream on which Pollard sings a spare melody over backwards music, transcending that gimmick to create something beautiful (and dare I say even better than the original, forwards version of the song, an old GBV nugget called "Stabbing a Star").

Fun lyric sheet/packaging too.

This is a fun lo-fi indie rock record, quite brillant in my opinion. It's definately not very polished like his past few records, but it's an extremely enjoyable listen. I love how Robert Pollard doesn't leave fans waiting too long for new materal, whether it's under one name/moniker/band or another.
If you love GBV's earlier releases, than you'll likely enjoy this just as much as I did. If you only have his more recent polished releases, I recomend you get yourself some early/earlier Guided By Voices records first. Basicly, this is a great addition to any Robert Pollard/GBV fans' music collection.