Elephant Jokes

Artist:

Pollard, Robert

UPC:

655035080628

See Also:

Hersh, Kristin Twilight Singers (The) Black, Frank (Rock) Westerberg, Paul

Description:

Personnel: Robert Pollard (vocals, guitar); Todd Tobias (guitar, keyboards, drums); Tim Tobias (guitar); Jim Pollard (background vocals).
Audio Mixer: Todd Tobias.
Recording information: Waterloo Sound, Kent, OH.
Has Robert Pollard been reading his reviews lately? The back cover of 2009`s Elephant Jokes, the fifth album Pollard released that year, features the blurb "Another big batch of Robert Pollard songs, a new nadir in patience and delicacy," suggesting he`s become aware of the not-uncommon complaint that he`s more interested in quantity than quality. But truth to tell, Pollard`s joke has been attached to the wrong record: Elephant Jokes sounds more like a Guided by Voices album than anything Pollard has done in quite a while, which is to say the tunes are short, energetic, and hooky as all get-out and he dives into them with a full head of steam. The album was cut using Pollard`s now standard working method -- Bob singing and playing guitar; Todd Tobias recording, producing, and handling the rest of the instruments -- but the results suggest Pollard put a bit more thought into his guitar playing, with a larger portion of joyously aggressive slop making its way into the final mix than listeners have come to expect, and though Elephant Jokes still doesn`t perfectly replicate the sound of the members of a full band bouncing ideas off one another in the studio, it comes much closer than most of his post-GbV work. And as for the songs, Elephant Jokes is just consistent enough that perhaps Pollard actually threw away a few less than worthwhile tunes for a change; the wordplay is thoroughly cryptic, as usual, but there`s actually some sort of point to "Things Have Changed (Down in Mexico City)" and "Hippsville (Where the Frisbees Fly Forever)," and the primitivism of "Jimmy" and "Symbols and Heads" is enough to make you think the man has rediscovered his four-track cassette machine, and likes it. Sure, Elephant Jokes is another big batch of Robert Pollard songs, but it harks back to a time when most smart pop fans could hardly ask for anything more. ~ Mark Deming

Track Listing:

DISC 1

1. Things Have Changed (Down in Mexico City)
2. Johnny Optimist
3. When a Man Walks Away
4. Parts of Your World
5. Symbols and Heads
6. I Felt Revolved
7. Epic Heads
8. Stiff Me
9. Compound X
10. Accident Hero
11. Tattered Lily
12. Hippsville (Where the Frisbees Fly Forever)
13. Newly Selected Dirt Spots
14. Jimmy
15. Pigeon Tripping
16. Spectrum Factory
17. Perverted Eyelash
18. Cosmic Yellow Children
19. Blown out Man
20. Desiring
21. (All You Need) To Know
22. Architectural Nightmare Man

Album Information

Release Date:

08/03/2009

Type:

Performer

Genre:

Rock & Pop

Subgenre:

Lo Fi

Label:

Guided by Voices

Producer:

Todd Tobias

Catalog Number:

GBVI 06CD

Original Release Year:

2009

# of Discs:

1

Studio/Live:

Studio

Mono/Stereo:

Stereo

Runtime:

46 : 4

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