In Stores Now: The New Theory of Everything by Mars Classroom

Photo titled "Gowdy Trapped Between the Bases" from Spalding's Official Baseball Guide, 1915

Robert Pollard is having quite a year - the Guided By Voices reunion tour is chugging along and getting ready for the summer festival circuit, but Uncle Bob's tour schedule is apparently not affecting his ability to turn out quality releases. The New Theory of Everything is his latest, a power-pop collaboration with Gary Waleik of '80s college-rock radio heroes Big Dipper. It's a nice companion piece to Pollard's recent collaboration with Doug Gillard (Waving at the Astronauts), a more laid-back and accessible cousin to that album's labyrinthine prog-rock. Gary Waleik doesn't bring the whole Big Dipper sound with him here - we get some of those noodly guitar leads that does so well, but the guitar tones and riffs are more "conventional power-pop" than the edgier stuff Big Dipper did. This is okay, though - we know from Pollard's collaboration with Tommy Keene (the Keene Brothers) that he can work in that power-pop palette with great agility.

The New Theory of Everything starts with a bang, too - the opening title track is what Pollard calls "creamy pop", heavy in hooks and harmonies, with some nice drumming from Bob Fay (formerly of Sebadoh). "Man. Wine. Power!" is the second half of the opening one-two punch, a good example of how Pollard can take a preexisting piece of music and exert an amazing degree of ownership over it by imposing a melody and lyric that meld seamlessly. Starting with the melancholy ballad "There Never Was a Sea of Love", though, the album settles into a slow-song/fast-song rhythm for the rest of its length. What's interesting about this is that Pollard doesn't ever load his albums with this many ballads - moody songs like "I Am an All-Star" and "Lumps" force him to stretch out a little and rely on his voice (not hooks and lyrical turns) to keep the listener captivated. It works quite well, making The New Theory of Everything a uniquely somber and vocal-focused work in his solo discography.

The downside to the sequencing of The New Theory of Everything is that the strict alternating between upbeat numbers and ballads (with none of the weird interludes we expect from Pollard) threatens to get monotonous toward that album's end. Luckily, Mars Classroom saves some of the best for last two songs - "It Had to Come From Somewhere" is as direct a power-pop single as the album's infectious opener, and the closer "Wish You Were Young" is easily the album's best ballad. It's got a lovely wistfulness and a longing for lost innocence that make a fitting ending to an album with a loose "school-days" concept.

So Pollard's tally for 2011 so far: one quirky post-punk record (Space City Kicks), one hard-rocking prog record (Waving at the Astronauts), and one creamy power-pop record (this one!) And, this summer, we'll get a psych-rock double LP from Boston Spaceships (Let It Beard) and a "poetry" record called Lord of the Birdcage. It never ends with this guy.

"New Theory" by Mars Classroom