Boston Spaceships: Let It Beard

Boston Spaceships: Let It Beard

2011

Guided By Voices Inc

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Blind 20-20  2. Juggernaut Vs. Monolith  3. Tourist U.F.O.  4. Minefield Searcher  5. Make A Record For Lo-Life  6. Let More Light Into The House  7. You Just Can't Tell 8. Chevy Marigold  9. Earmarked For Collision  10. Toppings Take The Cake  11. Tabby And Lucy  12. (I'll Make It) Strong For You  13. A Hair In Every Square Inch Of The House  14. The Ballad Of Bad Whiskey  15. I Took On The London Guys  16. Red Bodies  17. A Dozen Blue Overcoats  18. Pincushion  19. Christmas Girl  20. Let It Beard  21. The Vice Lords  22. German Field Of Shadows 23. Speed Bumps  24. No Steamboats  25. You In My Prayer 26. Inspiration Points


The 5th album by the Boston Spaceships, who are somewhat of an an indie rock supergroup, featuring Robert Pollard and Chris Slusarenko from Guided By Voices and John Moen from the Decemberists (as well as a bunch of guest stars from Wire, Dinosaur Jr, and the Dream Syndicate).

 It's extremely weird that I only own one proper Boston Spaceships album...I'm a GBV fanatic and own over 60 Pollard-related releases, yet I totally overlooked this band...I mean I heard about it, but it wasn't made clear to me how great the group was...Combine that with the fact that none of the local record stores carried their albums and  the end result was that I missed out on some of Robert Pollard's best work...

I went to Zia Records near the end of last year to pick up a copy of GBV's "The Bears for Lunch" and they also had a couple copies of "Out of the Universe by Sundown: The Greatest Hits of Boston Spaceships" which I also picked up (I'll go over that one tomorrow...)

I was so pleased when I listened to the Boston Spaceships disc that I couldn't contain myself...This was the best stuff that Pollard had put out in years...Classic after classic...A week  or two later I was able to score a copy of 2011's "Let It Beard."

And boy, this record is a doozy...A power-pop double-album: 26 songs in 70 minutes...There's so much here that it takes a couple  listens for it all to sink in, but once it did I think I've played this album almost everyday for the last 8 months...

The album is very much in line with latter day Guided By Voices albums...Not many of Pollard's trademark lo-fi fragments; this is a powerful hi-fi release with  lots of  full-length songs (quite a few even surpassing the 4 or 5 minute mark!)

  So many highlights...If you're looking for the great lost Who song, "Minefield Searcher" just might be it...Robert Pollard has devoted a lot of time and tape to capturing the glory of "Who's Next" and I think this song is where he 100% nails it...Against all odds, "Make a Record For Low-Life" is also a winning pop number, despite its too-slow, twisted riff...Seems like it's not going to work, but eventually does, which is one of the reasons I find Pollard's songwriting so appealing...

One of the biggest surprises is "Chevy Marigold" which features...gulp...soulful backing vocals! The kind you would hear on a 70's Stones record  or  maybe on "The Great Gig in the Sky"...I had no choice but to simultaneously laugh and acknowlege it's unparallelled greatness...Also be sure to check out "Tabby and Lucy" which begins like it's going to tell some sort of coherent story but in the end we're not left with much more  than "Chuckie was balls like he always is..." Still, a great chorus that would have set the stadiums on fire if anybody was paying attention...


The album closes with the grand five and a half minute  "Inspiration Points." Now, five minutes might not sound too long for a lot of artists, but in Robert Pollard terms this is a Wagnerian epic..
It's so jam-packed with killer stop-and-start riffs, catchy melodies and fun lyrics that most bands would have milked it for at least 10 minutes...And in a way, on the first couple listens, the hit and run hooks work against it, leaving you unsure of exactly what you've heard, but I'm telling you...A couple plays in and it reveals itself to be one of his finest tracks...Right up there with "Over the Neptune/Mesh Gear Fox."  If only every band got a "farewell" track of this caliber...

"Let It Beard" isn't the usual "for Pollard die-hards only" release...This is essential for anyone who still believes in the power and grandeur of Rock N' Roll...For those of us whose minds race with fevered thoughts of musical exploration when the word "Double Album" is mentioned...It's a huge loss that these guys aren't together anymore, but on the positive side, they still have four other albums of material I've yet to explore...

Let's check out "Inspiration Points" by Boston Spaceships (P.S. You Should really check this one out...And then once you listen to it make sure you immediately listen to it again...and again...and again...Then you will have successfully re-enacted my life for the past few months...)