REVIEW: Robert Pollard - Lord of the Birdcage

Bob Pollard's poetry put to music? Reminds me a bit of the song "Factory of Raw Essentials", 1:25 of meandering, beautifully-sung poetry from 2002's Universal Truths and Cycles of which I never tire... when Bob wants to put the lyrics front and center, it usually yields results like that... and this:

"I got a smashed middle finger
Let me explain that
Big kids were shooting the rock
It was a nine pound rock
I tried to stop the rock
You can’t stop the rock
It rolled over my finger
Crushed it like a grape..."

You can't stop the rock. True, and ain't that a great thing? Here's a nice explication of this song at No Ugly Babies.

This record definitely meanders and it is nowhere near as focused as the Lifeguards or Boston Spaceships discs he released earlier this year... but that's kind of the point of poetry: exploration of the sounds and relationships of words. Considering the words themselves, not so much what they mean, but how they sound, can be a very rewarding way to listen to Pollard. It's just a little more obvious here.

And it finishes strong, with "Holy Fire", an angular rocker, leading into "Ash Ript Telecopter", which just rocks.

Here's another one of the rockers, "Aspersion":



Listen in its entirety at Spinner.

Buy download at GBV Digital, and CD at Factory of Raw Essentials. Or do what I did, go by your local record store and buy a copy. Reward them for stocking Bob's records.