Image of Boston Spaceships from Boston Spaceships website
#3 Brown Submarine by Boston Spaceships (Guided By Voices, Inc.)
It's hard for me to write about the music of Robert Pollard - I've lived with it for so long and it's been such a big part of my life for over a decade, that it seems like there's nothing left to say. And that sounds really weird because most people have never heard of Robert Pollard or Guided By Voices, the band he fronted from 1983 to 2004. That's one of the odd things about being a big fan of something very obscure. Talking about how I listen to this album and why I like it is almost pointless because it's so different from how any non-fan (the entire population of Earth minus a few thousand) would hear it.
I can say a few general things about Brown Submarine - like most of Robert Pollard's work, it's inspired by British-Invasion pop, '70s progressive rock, and arty post-punk. His lyrics are more direct and less surreal than they were during Guided By Voices' brief time in the spotlight, but they are still pretty oblique at times. Some of the songs are new compositions, while others are pulled from the Robert Pollard "suitcase", an archive of demo tapes that goes back decades. It says something about Pollard's commitment to his vision of music that his brand-new compositions can sit comfortably next to something he originally wrote in the '80s.
The thing that makes Brown Submarine stand out among Pollard's recent projects is, simply put, ex-GBV bassist Chris Slusarenko. Since Guided By Voices broke up, Pollard has released five solo albums, all helmed by producer Todd Tobias. It's hard to say whether it has more to do with Tobias' extensive participation in these records (playing almost all the instruments, as well as arranging the songs and recording them) or Pollard's idea of what a solo album should be, but there has been something different about these solo records. The songs seem to take themselves too seriously, and there is something flat about them. I say that as someone who loves all these albums, but it's a good thing that the Boston Spaceships project was different by design. Pollard has said that Boston Spaceships is indended to be more "fun", and Slusarenko (who is the Todd Tobias of Boston Spaceships) has made choices that fit this agenda, shaping a more youthful dynamic in his choices as he brings these Pollard songs to life. Bringing Decemberist (and former Maroons frontman) John Moen in to play drums on the album was a good call as well. Brown Submarine really is more fun than other recent Pollard albums, so I'm thankful to Slusarenko for getting Pollard out of his rut a little.
The subject matter on Brown Submarine matches the tone, as well. Most of the songs are about getting with girls or sleazier things. "Ready to Pop" is about a fat man's enjoyment of his wife's pregnancy because they are the same size. "Ate It Twice" is only ostensibly about cake, and "Soggy Beavers" does not require or merit any discussion of its thesis. "Two Girl Area" sounds like another song that more or less speaks for itself, but it actually has a poignant lyric about love. It's hard to see where the second girl of the "area" fits in at all. It's hardly up there with David Crosby's "Triad" or Tom Heinl's "Three-Way" in describing what you think it's supposed to be describing. But the melody is sweet, and it has that sense of fun that drew people like me to Pollard's music in the first place. The best news is that a new Boston Spaceships record, The Planets Are Blasted is due for release in February (five months after the release date of Brown Submarine!) If Pollard plans to release two Boston Spaceships records a year, that's fine with me.
"Two Girl Area" by Boston Spaceships
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