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Robert Pollard, "Standard Gargoyle Decisions"
One of two Pollard solo albums released on the same day, this one contains jagged rock fragments, choppy rhythms, and snippets of alien transmissions. It's the more immediate and visceral of the two, with a huge sound and great performances, and it's easily one of the best rock albums I've heard from Pollard-or anyone, for that matter-in a long time.
Pollard has used a string of soft openings on recent albums, but "Killers" starts this one like a gunshot, continuing a strong run through the tug and pull of "Pill Gone Girl," the studied but bombastic "Hero Blows the Revolution," and culminating in "Psycho-Inertia," whose array of guitars and vocal performance would bring him a big hit in a better world. Nothing slows until "Lay Me Down," a lackadaisical song like many I've heard from him before but with a punchy ending. An unusually gravelly Pollard begins "Butcher Man," before rocketing away in another direction. Almost a continuation of that song in mood and instrumentation is "Motion Sickness Ghost." Screams and a great guitar solo raise the ending to a white-knuckled crescendo. The album changes direction yet again with the laid-back and bouncy, "I in the World." Additional organ and strange background vocal effects keep this pleasantly uneasy. Even the brief "Here Comes Garcia" has a sudden intrusion from an unknown source to keep it unpredictable.
Following these tracks, the slow pace of "Island Lobby" is a little out of context, especially followed by the equally patient "Folded Claws," but the overall atmosphere during this stretch doesn't deviate from the rest of the album. The rock returns in full force with "Feel Not Crushed." Its chord progression reminded me of other Pollard songs, but considering he's written well over 1,000 of them, that can happen from time to time. The double bill of "Accusations" and "Don't Trust Anybody" fuels the album with dazzling paranoia, the latter with layers of Pollard's vocals under a variety of recording conditions imploring the listener to obey the song's title. Apart from the puzzling intro in which an organ channels Cream's "Spoonful," energetic closer "Spider Eyes" is as powerfully driving of a song as any Pollard's done, his vocals strong as ever in both volume and effect.
Pollard's principle collaborator post-GBV, Todd Tobias, feeds these songs to a huge space, giving them the big sound they deserve. The effects and treated materials are also particularly well-balanced on this album, making his mild experiments a welcome addition rather than a distraction. It might be his most lively production to date and merits more recognition than a mere producer credit may imply.
I've been wary of much of Pollard's post-GBV solo material apart from From a Compound Eye, but I'm not sure if anything can get better than Standard Gargoyle Decisions. Some of the best parts here rival Pollard's most accomplished work, and even the ones that aren't quite at that level don't slow things down much. This is the Pollard album for which I've been waiting far too long.
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