Guided By Voices and Robert Pollard

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Il primo EP Forever Since Breakfast (I Wanna, 1986), registrato dal trio di Pollard, Tobin Sprout (chitarra) e Dan Toohey (basso), e` ancora succube degli R.E.M., che dominavano il rock alternativo del periodo. E il primo album, Devil Between My Toes (E, 1987), e` ancor piu` succube della new wave, con i suoi ritmi demenziali alla Devo e le sue armonie complesse alla Wire. Dogs' Out, Hey Hey, Old Battery e Cyclops sono ancora copie carbone degli REM.

Ma quello di Sandbox (Halo, 1987) era gia` un genere melodico (modelli Big Star e XTC) che e' "lo-fi" (alla Pavement, ma anni prima di loro) e frammentario (alla Sebadoh), ovvero l'esatto opposto di cio' che potrebbe sfondare nelle classifiche. Canzoni come Lips Of Steel sono coerenti con il pop sud-orientale di quegli anni (DB's e compagni). Adverse Wind, Everyday e Long Distance Man guardano ancora al modello REM.

Self-Inflicted Aerial Nostalgia (Halo, 1989) aggiunse semplicemente un tocco psichedelico alla ricetta, che ebbe l'unico effetto di rendere piu` serio lo scherzo. Ma scherzo rimaneva, in quanto nessuna delle canzoni era davvero una canzone completa. Pollard rifiutava ancora di prendersi sul serio, ma la sua vera personalita` cominciava ad emergere prepotentemente, sia nei ritornelli sia nella produzione. Si odono echi sempre piu` forti di Who e Beatles in Paper Girl, Short On Posters, Navigating Flood Regions e soprattutto An Earful Of Wax. Pollard sta maturando come "poeta" nel senso che comincia a scrivere storie fiabesche e un po' improbabili (The Future Is In Eggs, The Great Blake St Canoe Race).

In uno stile un po' depresso viene composto il concept Same Place The Fly Got Smashed (Engine #9, 1990). Disco ancora di transizione, annovera comunque Local Mix Up, Order For The New Slave Trade, Hard Way, Pendulum. La formazione cambiava di continuo e l'unica costante erano lui e il chitarrista Tobin Sprout.

A quel punto Pollard considero` chiusa la partita, tanto che raccolse in Propeller (Rockathon, 1992) gli scarti migliori degli album precedenti. Furono invece proprio Weed King, Unleashed la ballad Mesh Gear Fox e il malinconico folk-rock di Metal Mothers che fecero scattare la molla giusta. Ancora meglio erano la trascinante Quality Of Armor, nello stile del garage-rock degli anni '60, la gaia Exit Flagger, sempre a meta` strada fra Who e Hollies, il glorioso voodoobilly di Lethargy e il cupo voodoobilly di Some Drilling Implied. La critica si accorse finalmente di lui e da quel momento ebbe inizio la sua stagione maggiore. Tobin Sprout si fa largo con Red Gas Circle e soprattutto 14 Cheerleader Coldfront (a mellow ballad with vocal harmonies in the vein of Crosby & Nash).

Smessi i panni dei dilettanti, i Guided By Voices si organizzarono aggiungendo Mitch Mitchell alla chitarra e Kevin Fennell alla batteria. L'ode psichedelico-spaziale Unstable Journey, l'incubo martellante di Perhaps Now The Vultures e il grottesco cartone animato di Ergo Space Pig spiccano fra le vignette di Vampire On Titus (Scat, 1993). Sul fronte pop il disco annovera la ballad Gleemer, un'ottima imitazione degli Hollies (Jar Of Cardinals), una nenia alla John Lennon (Wondering Boy Poet). Sul fronte dell'hard-rock il complesso strimpella la tenera Wished I Was A Giant, dove sembra di sentire David Bowie duettare con i Velvet Underground, il rock and roll orecchiabile alla New York Dolls di Unleashed, le veementi Dusted e Expecting Brainchild. Ma Pollard esagera nel sottoprodurre le canzoni. Il suo tentativo di trasformare la "presa diretta" e le "prove generali" in un nuovo genere musicale si riduce semplicemente in un criminale spreco di talento. Qualcuna delle brevi eccentriche vignette (Cool Off Kid Kilowatt) potrebbe forse piu` di tutte le canzoni messe assieme,

Fra i loro gioielli pop si contano anche i singoli del 1993/94, in particolare If We Wait (Anyway, 1993) e Cruise (Simple Solutions, 1994). Gli EP sono piu` dispersivi, come se fossero stati improvvisati sul momento o se vi avessero trovato posto canzoni che non stavano bene su nessuno degli album: troppo generiche quelle di The Grand Hour (Scat, 1994), salvo forse Break Even, troppo minuscole quelle di Fast Japanese Spin Cycle (Engine, 1993), salvo My Impression Now, e Clown Prince Of The Menthol Trailer (Domino, 1993). Meglio quelle di Static Airplane Jive (City Slang, 1994) (Rockhaton, 1999), quanto meno Big School, Damn Good Mr Jam e Gelatin, quelle di Get Out Of My Stations (Siltbreeze, 1994), forse il migliore di sempre (Mobile, Melted Pat, Dusty Bushworms, Scalding Creek, Spring Tiger), e un paio di I Am The Scientist (Scat, 1995), Do The Earth e Planet's Own Brand.

Nonostante tanti anni di oblio, le ultime prove, tutte raccolte di tenui miniature melodiche senza pretese, presentano esattamente lo stesso sound e lo stesso livello qualitativo.

Per Bee Thousand (Scat, 1994) il gruppo e' cresciuto a sette unita', con Tobin Sprout quasi pari a Pollard in cabina di regia. Per il trentasettenne Pollard si tratta della rivincita, in quanto il disco viene finalmente recensito da tutti. Non e' cambiato molto: le canzoni si sono un po' allungate, ma rimangono allo stato di "dimostrazione", prototipo, prova; l'arrangiamento e' sempre amatoriale, casalingo, dimesso. Il gruppo si aggira con aria distratta fra il folk-rock dei Byrds (Hardcore UFO's), il rhythm'n'blues bianco dei primi anni '60 (Hot Freaks), le giostre psichedeliche del tardo Merseybeat (Smothered In Hugs), le marcette dei Turtles e degli Association (Echoes Myron, uno dei suoi vertici), fino a inoltrarsi nei mondi claustrofobici di Barrett e Hitchcock (I Am A Scientist, forse il capolavoro, Gold Star For Robot Boy) e li' beatamente perdersi.

Bee Thousand - The Director's Cut (Scat, 2004) is a 3-LP box-set containing the original album and four alternate versions.

La fama di Pollard e` in rapida ascesa. Tanto che i primi cinque album vengono ristampati in un cofanetto (insieme a una ventina di inediti).

Su Alien Lanes (Matador, 1995) Pollard raccoglie ben ventotto frammenti melodici, tutti registrati in maniera religiosamente amatoriale. A dilagare sono le fastidiose armonie vocali (Closer You Are) e le marcette scanzonate (As We Go Up We Go Down) dei Beatles, nonche' imitazioni anche troppo smaccate di John Lennon, al limite della parodia (Pimple Zoo, Chicken Blows), ma mischiate a dosi sempre massicce di pop eccentrico (il trascinante swamp-rock distorto di My Valuable Hunting Knife, uno dei suoi capolavori, A Good Flying Bird, e l'ode metafisica Game Of Pricks a passo di Hollies). Il suo testardo epigonismo sposato alla maniacale predilezione per l'incompiuto ne fanno in realta` l'anti-Beatles per eccellenza, che decostruisce tutto cio` che era mitico e classico del loro pop di massa e lo trasforma in divertimento casalingo per amici intimi.
Passano per lo piu` sotto silenzio i brani duri e psichedelici (Watch Me Jumpstart, Striped White Jets, My Son Cool e lo strumentale Alright), che invece meglio riassumono l'originalita` musicale di Pollard. Motor Away fonde i due aspetti rifacendosi alle schitarrate ribelli e al piglio epico degli Who, ed e` quasi heavy-metal per loro.
Tobin Sprout scrive Straw Dogs e soprattutto Little Whirl, la piu` grintosa dell'intero album.

Esce l'EP Tigerbomb (Matador, 1995).

Ai limiti di questo programma pone rimedio Under The Bushes Under The Stars (Matador, 1996). Le sue ventiquattro canzoni sono davvero canzoni complete, registrate professionalmente e suonate fino in fondo. Sono anche ottimiste (confrontate con quelle malinconiche di Bee Thousand e quelle nervose di Alien Lanes). Ma quello che dovrebbe essere il grande evento della carriera di Pollard si rivela invece la grande delusione. Nel momento in cui abbandona il ruolo del teorico, Pollard diventa un cantautore mediocre, capace soltanto di imitare i modelli del passato. Il disco scorre monocorde, senza entusiasmo, fra la melodia del singolo Ironmen Rally Song che sembra di aver gia` ascoltato cento volte e e il rock'n'roll insolitamente ruvido di Cut Out Witch e Man Called Aerodynamics. I ritornelli un po' troppo generici di Underwater Explosions e It's Like Soul Man non vanno lontano, e Ghost Of A Different Dream e` talmente contorta che sembra una canzone dei Cure. Lo spiegamento di mezzi sembra mettere in difficolta` Pollard invece che aiutarlo. L'artigiano si rifugia nelle canzoni piu` timide, il folk acustico di Acorns & Orioles, il "lento" Pink Floyd-iano To Remake The Young Flyer (di Sprout), la soffice e ipnotica Don't Stop Now, dove se non altro la sua voce non e` incalzata dagli strumenti.

Pollard e` prolifico piu` che mai. Ha gia` pronto un EP, Sunfish Holy Breakfast (Matador, 1996), e Plantations of Pale Pink (Matador, 1996), con un'altra infornata di canzonette. Catfood on the Earwig, A Life in Finer Clothing, Systems Crash e Subtle Gear Shifting lo ritraggono nei panni piu` eccentrici, ma vince ancora una volta un tributo agli Who, The Who Vs. Porky Pig.

Alien Lanes e Bee Thousand rimangono probabilmente i capolavori dei Guided By Voices.

Tobin Sprout lascia il compagno e avvia la sua carriera solista. Poco dopo anche Mitch Mitchell lancia un proprio progetto.

Pollard registra invece Not In My Airforce (Matador, 1996), 22 brani di rock approssimativo e nervoso come prima di Under The Stars. Ancora una volta riesce meglio quando imita gli Who (Psychic Pilot Clocks Out) che quando fa l'idiot savant.

Per Mag Earwhig (Matador, 1997) Pollard licenzia i suoi ex-compagni e assume i Cobra Verde di John Petkovic (alla cui band precedente, Death Of Samantha, Pollard deve non poco). Ventuno i brani questa volta, un calderone che inizia con Can't Hear The Revolution, un esperimento di falsa avanguardia come li facevano i tardi Beatles. Se le melodie sono spesso stucchevoli, gli arrangiamenti sono sempre intelligenti. Magistrale il modo in cui erigono senso di desolazione e tensione in Portable Men's Society, con la chitarra che tempesta un boogie in staccato, un sibilo elettronico che squarcia il vuoto e il canto d'oltretomba che si libra in un gemito epico. Il fatto di disporre finalmente di un vero complesso rock gli consente di comporre anche canzoni dalla dinamica complessa come questa, o come The Finest Joke Is Upon Us. La presenza del chitarrista Doug Gillard e` comunque avvertibile sia nel boogie assordante che contrappunta il singolo Bulldog Skin sia soprattutto nella nuova gemma in stile Who del disco, I Am A Tree.
Pollard rimane comunque prima di tutto un piccolo genio del pop, come dimostrano gli sdolcinati ritornelli Merseybeat di Jane Of The Waking Universe e Mute Superstar e le progressioni melodiche alla Hollies di Little Lines, forse le piu` irresistibili della sua carriera.
Il folk acustico per sola chitarra di Choking Tara e Now To War e la Sad If I Lost It a` la Byrds sono frammenti che appartengono al passato. Pollard si e` ormai promosso a professionista, prima del pop e ora anche del rock. Lasciare incompiute le sue canzoni era un buon trucco per nascondersi. Adesso deve misurarsi con il suo effettivo talento.
Pollard e` un po' sopravvalutato, ma un suo disco e` sempre un evento. Soltanto la mole della sua opera (fra singoli, Ep e album) basterebbe a garantirgli un posto sull'Olimpo della canzone moderna.

Tonics And Twisted Chasers (Rockathon, 1997), sempre con l'aiuto dei Cobra Verde e con la collaborazione dell'ex socio Tobin Sprout, e` altrettanto brioso.

Quello di Pollard e' un esercizio raffinato, ma che sa un po' di soliloquio nel deserto. In un certo senso ha continuato a ripetere una sua personale Abbey Road, un'operetta-collage a pannelli melodici.

Waved Out (Matador, 1998), album solista di Pollard, e` dispersivo e confuso come sempre, ma annovera qualche brano che lo redime e che anzi si pone fra i migliori di sempre: la solenne Make Use, la ballad pianistica, funerea e jazzata, di People Are Leaving il rock and roll trascinante di Subspace Biographies, e la fantasia psichedelica di Showbiz Opera Wlarus.

La colossale e autoindulgente dispersione della sua carriera tocca un altro fondale con il nuovo album solista, Kid Marine (Rockathon, 1998), primo di una serie di raccolte di brani piu` o meno improvvisati, capricci d'autore come Submarine Teams e Television Prison.

(Clicka qua per la versione Italiana)

Do The Collapse (TVT 1999), with a new line-up (Doug Gillard of Cobra Verde on guitar, Jim MacPherson of Breeders on drums) does not fare well. Pollard's most regular sounding album and commercial move yields the intensely arranged melodies of Hold On Hope, Things I Will Keep, In Stitches. Pollard's favorite pace (the frantic march in crescendo) and his favorite vocal harmonies (the Hollies') propel Teenage FBI, with distorted guitar riffs replacing his favorite guitar accompaniment (the Byrds' jangling guitars).

The powerful and infectious power-pop of Surgical Focus (TVT, 1999) is easily one of the best of the year.

The duo formed by Guided By Voices' drummer Don Thrasher with guitarist and vocalist Dave Doughman, Swearing At Motorists, imitated the master (Pollard) on The Fear Of Low Flying Clouds (Spare Me, 1998), although subsequent albums became more and more personal statements by Dave Doughman: More Songs From The Mellow Struggle (Secretely Canadian, 2000), Number Seven Uptown (Secretely Canadian, 2001), This Flag Signals Goodbye (Secretely Canadian, 2002), Last Night Becomes This Morning (2006).

Robert Pollard and Doug Gillard also release Speak Kindly (Fading Captain Series, 1999), an album in their old "lo-fi" style.

Not satisfied with the regular releases, Pollard dished out the four volumes of rarities Suitcase (Fading Captain Series, 2000) containing all sorts of discarded material that date as far back as 1974. Pollard claimed that about 200 tapes got lost in a flood, a fact which stands as proof for the existence of a merciful god. Suitcase 2 - American Superdream Wow (Fading Captain, 2005) added 100 more rarities, thus nominating the twofer for most abominable anthology of rarities in the history of recordings.

Isolation Drills (TVT, 2001) continues Guided By Voices' quest for mass appeal. Forsaken eccentricity and quirkiness, and armored in glossy production, Pollard sails towards mass consumption with the catchy and silly Glad Girls and Chasing Heather Crazy, both destined to remain crowd favorites. Pivotal Film, Want One, The Enemy and Skills Like This echo his 1960s heroes Who and T.Rex, although they now cater to the same middle-class teenagers who listen to Backstreet Boys. However, hidden between the lines, is Pollard's tragic philosophy of life, best expressed in the bitter (and tuneful) Fair Touching, the devastating How's My Drinking and the fatalistic Campfighter. Technically speaking, this could be Pollard's best album ever. Art not being only technique, this album stands more like a compromise between what he likes to play and what the world likes to hear. If nothing else, this time around Pollard thought twice before recording the songs. The music could only benefit.

Tower In The Fountain Of Sparks (Fading Captain, 2001), credited to Airport 5, is the first collaboration between Robert Pollard and former bandmate Tobin Sprout since their professional break-up. Sprout writes most of the music and Pollard basically improvises over the partner's instrumental scores. Since this is, ultimately, an album about textures, it belongs more to the former than to the latter. Sprout seems to be playing in a sort of zombie-like, foggy trance, from which there emerge the surreal twang of Burns Carpenter and Total Exposure, the mournful raga of Subatomic Rain, the icy dirge of The Cost of Shipping Cattle. Pollard can't resist to throw in the garage-rock of One More and the Sgt Pepper's parody Mansfield In The Sky, but the core of the album is Sprout's quiet lunacy. The best aspect of the duo's collaboration is perhaps best summarized by a trio of simple, catchy, melancholy pop tunes: Up The Nails, Stifled Man Casino, Feathering Clueless. Here Pollard is just a singer, Sprout is the composer, but the two perfectly complement each other.

The second Airport 5 album, Life Starts Here (Fading Captain, 2002), sounds like leftovers from the first one.

His Soft Rock Renegades, the band credited for Choreographed Man of War (Recordhead, 2001), is Pollard again with the same line-up of Do The Collapse:, bassist Greg Demos and Drummer Jim MacPherson. The trio serves two classics in the genre of the introspective ballad: Edison's Memos and 7th Level Shutdown. On the other hand, I Drove a Tank and Bally Hoo pay tribute to the Who, and even the more conventional (i.e., trivial) power-pop of Kickboxer Lightning displays an uncanny talent for writing catchy tunes. In his mature age, Pollard is focusing on the wedding of introspection and melody. No wonder he gives his best in the genre of the sentimental ballad.

Circus Devils is another side-project launched by Robert Pollard (paired with Todd and Tim Tobias). Ringworm Interiors (Fading Captain, 2002), Harold Pig Memorial (Fading Captain, 2003), Pinball Mars (Fading Captain, 2004), Five (Fading Captain, 2005), are more experimental and difficult than the Guided By Voices output.

Guided By Voices released four singles in 2002: Back To The Lake / Dig Through My Window, Cheyenne / Visit This Place, Everywhere With Helicopter, Universal Truths And Cycles.

On their 13th studio album, Universal Truths And Cycles (Matador, 2002), Guided By Voices sound like a band with a mission: the mission to obfuscate their own past. With the exception of the sulphuric, limping voodoobilly Skin Parade, the bluesy garage stomp From a Voice Plantation, and the sublime hypnosis of Car Language, the songs are as linear as on any mainstream-rock album. Pollard is still perfecting his manic quest for the resurrection of classic power-pop as enunciated by the Who (Christian Animation Torch Carriers and Eureka Signs), and the results are occasionally brilliant (the quintessential bubblegum melody Cheyenne, the slightly demented rigmarole Everywhere with Helicopter, the languid Cheyenne that Suede could kill for), but more often not (check out the stark REM-ian ballad Storm Vibrations or the lame Brit-pop ditty Universal Truths and Cycles). The playing is more solid than ever, with guitarist Doug Gillard penning tasty distortions everywhere, Todd Tobias' keyboards adding a surreal touch and the rhythm section of Nate Farley and Jon McCann drawing a straight line for the others to follow.
As usual, the problem is that most of these songs are not songs but just ideas, and maybe ideas should simply be kept in the drawer until you are ready to turn them into songs. The overall feeling, as usual, is of some really good tunes buried in tidal waves of filler.

In the meantime, Calling Zero (Matador, 2002), credited to Go Back Snowball, is a collaboration between Pollard and Superchunk's Mac McCaughan. The two concoct grand pop in the vein of Neutral Milk Hotel and Apples In Stereo, a vast cry from either Guided By Voices or Superchunk.

On Pipe Dreams Of Instant Prince Whippet (Recordhead, 2002) Guided By Voices, the greatest pop swindle of the decade, dishes out another dose of half-bake songs.

Go Back Snowball's Calling Zero (Fading Captain, 2002) is a collaboration between Superchunk's Mac McCaughan and Robert Pollard.

Few people have produced so many irrelevant recordings as Robert Pollard. His solo album Motel of Fools (Fading Captain, 2003) has only one song worth listening to, Captain Black.

Guided By Voices's Earthquake Glue (Matador, 2003) is another set of trivial power-pop refrains, but enhanced with a crunchy, propulsive guitar sound (on full display in the breakneck rock'n'roll of Useless Inventions).
There are explicit references to the Sixties: I'll Replace You With Machines, the one moment of epic madness on the album (thanks to electronic distortion and catastrophic drumming), echoes the Who circa Happy Jack and the Hollies circa Bus Stop; the riff and melody of She Goes Off at Night are clearly inspired by riffs and melodies from Who's Tommy; Secret Star (that mimicks the Kinks' Waterloo Sunset) condenses Pollard's art of jangling guitars, martial tempos, sweet vocal harmonies.
Also captivating are the slower, simpler songs, that occasionally prove Pollard is not so overrated after all: the ecstatic ballad The Best of Jill Hives, propelled by a light boogie rhythm a` la Velvet Underground; Dirty Water, sung in Sting-like sensual register, backed by bluesy guitar (replete with Cream-like wah-wah and vibrato) and tom-tom rhythm from an Indian war dance; and the REM-like litany The Main Street Wizards. My Kind of Soldier is the "standout" from the melodic viewpoint.
Every song relies on insanely catchy motifs and impeccable execution: no question about that. The problem is that it's hard to tell most of them from the others, and from the thousand tunes that came before them. One gets positively annoyed upon hearing the 1000nd Beatles-ian progression or the 200th Big Star-ian power riff or the 400th Byrds-ian harmonies. What he has is talent, not genius.

Human Amusements at Hourly Rates (Matador, 2003) is a 32-song career retrospective. It includes a few rarities: the spacey folk-rock of Twilight Campfighter (worthy of the Byrds circa 1966), the violent rock'n'roll of Captain's Dead (with Byrds-ian vocal harmonies), the psychedelic ballad Tractor Rape Chain and the brief but hypnotic Non-Absorbing.

Hardcore UFOs (Matador, 2003) is a 5-cd box-set (their third box-set) that works both as career retrospective, singles, rarities and live performance.

Robert Pollard's Fiction Man (Fading Captain, 2004) could be worse if it didn't boast multi-instrumentalist Todd Tobias' tasty arrangements: one of Pollard's worst albums ever.

Half Smiles Of The Decomposed (Matador, 2004), announced as Guided By Voices' final album, is typical of both their assetts and liabilities. It refines the essence of their power-pop with impeccable artifacts such as Everybody Thinks I'm A Raincloud, the half-whispered vocals wrapped into heavy guitar strumming and pounding drums, or the Byrds-ian, jangling The Closets Of Henry. It continues the never-ending exploration of experimental song structures and arrangements (Sleep Over Jack). It indulges in effervescent psychedelic rigmaroles (Gonna Never Have to Die, Huffman Prairie Flying Field, one of his best) and unorthodox folk ballads (the semi-orchestral Window Of My World) that redefine genres with the grace of a bulldozer. The price to pay is the usual dose of lame pop refrains (Girls of Wild Strawberries, Asphyxiated Circle) and the usual frustration when a good idea is truncated after only two minutes. And the fundamental incompleteness of his program remains the same: none of his songs is a classic (as far as melody goes) and none of his songs is an outstanding "composition". The number of tracks that get close to being either is impressive, but, at the end of the day, none truly succeeds. In this case one is also left with the impression that the second half of the album is mostly made of left-overs (the quality is dramatically inferior to the songs of the first half).

Pollard's 26-song From A Compound Eye (2006) continued to dilute his (already mediocre) art over colossal heaps of filler. Normal Happiness (2006) was its poppier (and, thankfully, slimmer) companion.

Crickets (2007) is a double-CD compilation of material from 1999-2007.

The seven-song EP Silverfish Trivia (Prom Is Coming, 2007) contains the eight-minute Cats Love A Parade.

To make things even more unbearable, Pollard released two albums that were one the alter-ego of the other: a collection of trivial pop ditties, Coast To Coast Carpet Of Love (Merge, 2007), versus a parade of trite blues-rock shuffles, Standard Gargoyle Decisions (Merge, 2007).

He certainly helped create the trend, but Pollard's Off To Business (2008) does little other than indulge in the fashionable alt-pop format. In fact, he seems to steer towards classic adult rock in The Original Heart and The Blondes (pretty much the only reasons to listen to the album).

Pollard's psych-pop fared slightly better on We've Moved (Happy Jack Rock Records, 2008), credited to Psycho And The Birds, while Superman Was A Rocker (Needmore Songs, 2008), credited to Robert Pollard, was yet another copy of the bad record that he kept recording over and over again.

Guided by Voices' vocalist Robert Pollard, Decemberists' drummer John Moen and and guitarist Chris Slusarenko formed the Boston Spaceships that debuted with Brown Submarine (2008). Like most of Pollard's output, the album was a collection of forgettable roots-rock songs. Like most of Pollard's project, it immediately became super-prolific, yielding Planets Are Blasted (2009), Elephant Jokes (2009), with 22 songs, and Zero to 99 (2009), albums that sounded like recycled Guided By Voices ditties, if not leftovers.

The Crawling Distance (Guided By Voices, 2009) was another collaboration between Pollard and Todd Tobias.

Robert Pollard reformed Guided By Voices but, luckily, he re-employed Tobin Sprout, who helped rescue the 21-song Let's Go Eat the Factory (2011) from the leader's old-fashioned power-pop (the singles The Unsinkable Fats Domino and Doughnut for a Snowman plus at least Waves and Chocolate Boy) and his rough and fragmentary nostalgia with God Loves Us and Spiderfighter.

Pollard's We All Got Out Of The Army (Guided By Voices, 2010) is basically a series of yawn-inspiring following the only decent one, the rocking Silk Rotor. And even that one is not exactly groundbreaking.

Most of Pollard's albums were now artificially constructed around one or two good songs, like I Wanna Be Your Man in the Moon off Space City Kicks (2011), or Science Magazine off Mouseman Cloud (2012). Reviewers started reviewing the titles of the songs instead of the music.

Admittedly, Pollard's Lord of the Birdcage (2011) was more consistent than any of its immediate predecessors, boasting an unusually large number of accomplished ditties in a variety of formats: Dunce Codex, Garden Smarm, You Can't Challenge Forward Progress, Smashed Middle Finger, Ribbon of Fat.

Meanwhile, the reunited Guided By Voices then unleashed the spotty 21-song tour de force Class Clown Spots a UFO (2012). The triptych of Class Clown Spots a UFO, Keep It In Motion and Jon the Croc matches anything they did in the beginning, while the lo-fi pop Tyson's High School and Billy Wire even faithfully matches "the sound" of their beginning. The rocking No Transmission ends the album on a lively note, but too many of the fragments don't connect. The year ended with another album, the 19-song The Bears For Lunch (Guided By Voices Incorprated, 2012), that contains Hangover Child and King Arthur The Red, plus Tobin Sprout's The Corners Are Glowing, Waving At Airplanes and Skin To Skin Combat.

The six-song EP Down By The Racetrack (2013) contains the psychedelic title-track. The 17-song English Little League (2013), mostly devoted to slow tedious ballads, further dilutes the percentage of good music in Pollard's album, with only a couple of songs worthy of his pop fame (Flunky Minnows, Xeno Pariah) and only two rockers to awake the listener (W/ Glass In Foot and Sprout's Quiet Game).

Undeterred, and determined to prove that it's quantity and not quality that matters, Robert Pollard released the solo Jack Sells The Cow (Guided By Voices Inc, 2012), actually another collaboration with Todd Tobias, another low point in a career mainly of low points. After wasting time listening to all these songs, the critic picks at least one to salvage (in this case probably "Pontius Pilate Heart").

Guided by Voices released Cool Planet (2014) that features Robert Pollard's ferocious Authoritarian Zoo and the singalong Bad Love is Easy to Do as well as Tobin Sprout's stately Dylan-ian All-American Boy. The rest is ridiculous as usual.

And in fact Motivational Jumpsuit (2014), 20 songs in 37 minutes, showed that the band was running out of ideas again. Tobin Sprout's material is vastly inferior to his standards, even the Byrds-ian Record Level Love. Pollard's material, as usual, is a long parade of misses and no hits. The boogie Alex and the Omegas is not the worst melody (there are at least 15 contenders) but it's the one that really sabotages the instrumental part.

Robert Pollard played all the instruments on Please Be Honest (2016), an album that is strictly for those who have time to waste. Nobody would mention My Zodiac Companion, Please Be Honest and Kid On A Ladder if they were on a decent album; but here they stand out because the rest is below ridiculous.

His solo albums were vastly inferior to these already inferior albums: Honey Locust Honky Tonk (2013), Blazing Gentlemen (2013), Faulty Superheroes (2015) and Of Course You Are (2016).

The 32-song, 70-minute, double-album August By Cake (2017) was a celebration of sorts for Robert Pollard: his 100th studio album. It also inaugurated a new line-up of Guided by Voices. Pollard winks at ZZ Top (the southern boogie 5 Degrees On The inside), David Bowie (the martial horror movie soundtrack Packing The Dead Zone), the New Pornographers (the lame Dr Feelgood Falls Off The Ocean but also the anthemic singalong Goodbye Note that outdoes them), the Kinks (West Coast Company Man, almost a saloon version of Well Respected Man), T.Rex (the pounding Escape To Phoenix), etc. And then there's the waltzing ballad Warm up to Religion, Bobby Bare's High Five Hall Of Famers, Kevin March's Sentimental Wars and so on. When We All Hold Hands at the End of the World is a reworking of Home By Ten (on Suitcase 2) and Keep Me Down is an old Boston Spaceships song (off The Planets Are Blasted).

A more polished production on How Do You Spell Heaven (2017) could not hide that these were leftovers even within a career largely made of leftovers. The thundering parts of Paper Cutz and Tenth Century are mere distractions.

It is hard to salvage something form albums like Space Gun (2018).

Meanwhile, the Circus Devils released Five (2005), Sgt Disco (2007), Ataxia (2008), Gringo (2009), Mother Skinny (2010), Capsized (2011), When Machines Attack (2013), My Mind Has Seen the White Trick (2013), Escape (2014), Stomping Grounds (2015), Laughs Last (2017), etc.

The 32-song Zeppelin Over China (2019) is an incredibly boring experience despite the catchy The Rally Boys and My Future in Barcelona. Warp And Woof (2019) collects 24 songs released on 4 EPs The quality of Sweating The Plague (2019) is just ridiculous. Surrender Your Poppy Field (2020) has the baroque pop of Arthur Has Business Elsewhere and then an avalanche of filler. Guided By Voices was an assembly line of cheap low-quality imitations.

Guided By Voices' 1,000th album Earth Man Blues (2021), following the mini-album Heaven Beats Iowa (2021) credited to the Cub Scout Bowling Pins, contains the hard-rocking The Batman Sees the Ball and the punk-pop ditty Trust Them Now, neither of which is exactly groundbreaking but it's the best of the year. The string-laden The Disconnected Citizen makes even the Beatles' The Long and Winding Road sound interesting.