Robert Pollard

Part two of Bob Pollard's break-up album duet, Coast to Coast Carpet of Love sees indie rock's most fertile songwriter on the road to recovery. Where Standard Gargoyle Decisions saw him at his most experimental, yet fractured and acerbic, its companion is classic Pollard at his most romantic and wistful. It's as if the angry beast has been tamed by forgiveness and relearned how to make simple, gleeful pop songs again. "Count Us In," "Miles Under the Skin" and "Nicely Now" are tuneful and economic, showing that it pays to keep the scratchy-voiced Ohioan happy.