Robert Pollard

Even without Guided by Voices, pop savant Robert Pollard doesn't show any signs of slowing. Normal Happiness (his second solo record of the year) starts strongly with "Accidental Texas Who," a jumble of hopped-up psyche pop that has Pollard's scrappy charm in spades. And so what if there are a few half-baked songs best left on the cutting room floor? Songs like "Supernatural Car Lover" and "Pegasus Glue Factory" make up for it. Brilliantly unpolished, they're tossed-off classics bearing Pollard's distinctive fingerprints.

Guided by Voices are now defunct, but leader Pollard hasn't slowed down -- this is his
second solo record this year. Happiness sounds like a string of freaked-out AM hits: Songs
like "Pegasus Glue Factory" have an appealingly ripe-around-the-edges psych-rock feel,
and there's lots of off-handedly charming stuff like the vaguely power-pop "Full Sun."
There's also some muddled crap. Pollard could keep this up for a long, long time.