Robert Pollard: Kid Marine

Robert Pollard: Kid Marine

1999

Fading Captain Series/Luna records

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Submarine Teams  2. Flings of the Waistcoat Crowd  3. The Big Make-Over  4. Men Who Create Fright  5. Television Prison  6. Strictly Comedy  7. Far-Out Crops  8. Living Upside Down  9. Snatch Candy  10. White Gloves Come Off  11. Enjoy Jerusalem!  12. You Can't Hold Your Women  13. Town of Mirrors  14. Powerblessings  15. Island Crimes


Now we're getting into some really interesting stuff. This was the release that kicked off the sprawling Fading Captain Series that saw Bob releasing any damn thing he wanted over a 44-album sprawl (ending with 2007's compilation "Crickets.") See? This is what I like. Ambition! I can't even begin to calculate the toll the Fading Captain Series took on my wallet (colloquially known as "Ol' Empty"). 

I remember ordering this when it came out on the Rockathon website in the late 90's, anxiously checking the mail for my new fix. It eventually came and I remember driving around, delivering pizzas and rocking out to it. However, it seemed somehow underwhelming and disjointed. Knotty and missing the candied melodies of the GBV hits I loved and cherished. Hell, most of these songs didn't even bother with choruses! 

I did have to admit, it sounded nice when it was playing though and it rocked sufficiently but that incessant jabbering loop that kicks off the album always gave me an uneasy feeling.  There's an abundance of weirdness here. The cracked falsetto on "Far Our Crops." The stream of conscience  melodies that drifted all over the places. Ugly-as-fuck rockers like "Television Prison." There's also a definite nautical theme, featuring submarines, mussels, islands, brine, swordfish etc that made the album a soggy and salty experience.

But over the next couple of weeks it started to slowly grow on me and eventually became another favorite. There's just something so great about "Kid Marine." For starters, I'd say it hangs together as an album better than any other Pollard album I can think of. He's always had a knack for sequencing, but this is a real standout in that department. I can't imagine these songs in any other order. Plus the concept is so promising. You see that squadron of beer-gutted, middle-aged dudes hanging out, dragging cigarettes in front of a chain link fence? Well, this album is about one of those guys! The smell of watered-down domestic beer positively wafts out of the album artwork... 

Cut-off sleeves! Unironic mullets! Sharks! This stuff is my bread and butter!

Oh, and a couple of my favorite Pollard tracks are on here: "Powerblessings" was a song that went in one ear and out the other for awhile, but then suddenly it clicked with me in a major, major way. It's all in that free-flowing melody, that wanders from sweet spot to sweet spot with no concern for your ability to follow or make sense of it. But listen to it enough and eventually you can figure out where it's going and suddenly see what a lustrous little ornament it is. The lyrics are really beautiful and at the end when Pollard sings, "Powerblessings to you and all of you..." it has real power and warmth. Like some slightly-askew Christmas carol from an alternate universe. Don't overlook this one. "Town of Mirrors" is another favorite of mine. Again, it's oddly touching considering I have no effing idea what is actually being said (although he gives us a clue on the live version of the song that appears on "LIve at the Wheelchair Races" that it's a tribute to his children which, to me, makes the song especially interesting  considering the ambivalence conveyed in the words). 

To me, this is probably the quintessential example of non-pop Robert Pollard. It's sometimes easy to reduce him to a writer of immediate and poppy rock songs cos he's so damn good at it, but part of what makes those pop songs so appealing is the weirdness and the sense of melancholy that is lurking behind the pleasing melodies. By subtracting the obvious pop trappings we get a more-rounded look at Pollard's work. It's really singular stuff and a unique voice in rock music. And this captures a moment on his monumental roll where he's confident to wallow in some  arty, chorus-less, rock that only invites us to sing along after a handful of deep-ass listens and multiple trawls through the lyric sheet. I sorta think it's a key album and  if you can listen to and enjoy "Kid Marine", the slick pop of "Do the Collapse" and the caustic noise of Nightwalker (both of which were right around the corner), you can take any Pollard album. It's the ice-water plunge for sure but you'll have an easy trip through the vast Pollard discography at that point... 

Let's blast some "Kid Marine." Here's "Powerblessings." Enjoy...

Oh yea. I almost forgot the rankings! I've gone back and forth over where this one goes, to the point where I almost had to question the rankings altogether. For a few seconds I placed it above "Same Place" but ultimately decided that "Same Place" while not as consistent as "Kid Marine," has more ceiling-scraping highlights. For some unknown reason, I've found "Same Place" to be my baseline comparison for every other Pollard album. The yardstick by which other albums are measured. My eye immediately goes there and I have to weigh whether or not it tops "Same Place." I think it's because "Same Place the Fly Got Smashed" has such clearly defined flaws and virtues. huh...

1. Guided by Voices: Alien Lanes

2. Guided by Voices: Bee Thousand

3.Guided by Voices: Under the Bushes, Under the Stars

4. Guided by Voices: Propeller

5. Robert Pollard: Waved Out

6. Tobin Sprout: Carnival Boy

7. Guided by Voices: Same Place the Fly Got Smashed

8. Robert Pollard: Kid Marine

9. Guided by Voices: Tonics and Twisted Chasers

10. Guided by Voices: Sunfish Holy Breakfast

11. Robert Pollard: Not In My Airforce

12. Mag Earwhig!

13.  Guided by Voices: King Shit and the Golden Boys

14. Guided by Voices: Self-Inflicted Aerial Nostalgia

15. Guided by Voices: Vampire on Titus

16. Guided by Voices: Sandbox

17. Guided by Voices: Forever Since Breakfast

18. Guided by Voices: Devil Between My Toes