In Stores Now: The Planets Are Blasted by Boston Spaceships

Illustration taken from a cover of Chicagoan magazine by Hermina Selz, 1928

Robert Pollard's back with his first new album since January's The Crawling Distance! This is a new one by Boston Spaceships, Pollard's project with Portland musicians Chris Slusarenko and John Moen, the ensemble Pollard formed as an outlet for Pollard's more "immature" and pop-oriented songs (so that he could use his official solo albums to push the boundaries of his more mature approach.) Once again, this is a case of the record splitting the difference between Pollard's intentions and doing what he always does. But this isn't necessarily a bad thing - The Planets Are Blasted is definitely more of a "grower" than you'd expect, with "pop" songs that are brief and hook-oriented but take a while to sink in.

For many longtime Pollard fans, the great thing about Boston Spaceships is that it is his only project not helmed by Todd Tobias (on all Pollard's solo albums, Tobias produces, arranges the songs, and plays all the instruments). The material has a refreshing variety to it as well, from the REM-inspired power-pop of opener "Canned Food Demon" and the '90s-throwback indie rock of "Keep Me Down" to the Zepellinisms of "Tattoo Mission" and delicate pop of "Catherine From Mid-October". Slusarenko also helps Pollard recycle some of his underused melodies - at least four of the album's songs are updated rarities and demos known only to hardcore fans. Some of the more off-putting tendencies of Pollard's recent solo albums are present here, particularly in the bludgeoning "rawk" of "Big O Gets an Earful" and "UFO Love Letters", which come across as lesser iterations of "By Silence Be Destroyed" from The Crawling Distance.

One of The Planets Are Blasted's best traits is its concision - only two of the songs last for more than three minutes, and one of those is the mind-blowing song suite "Sight on Sight". The album's shortest song, "The Town That's After Me", is one of the best, getting the job done in under 1:20. Like the best songs Pollard wrote in his Guided By Voices days, I find myself reaching for the rewind button as soon as it starts to fade out so I can hear it again. Pollard's at his best when is shooting these little melodies out into the ether as fast as his mind can generate them, so if The Planets Are Blasted doesn't do it for you, you're in luck. The next Boston Spaceships record, Zero to 99, comes out in October and will feature REM's Peter Buck on guitar!

"The Town That's After Me" by Boston Spaceships