Getting down to Business isn’t a phrase often associated with Robert Pollard. That is, unless, by “business” you mean drinking 14 cases of Budweiser and writing 300 songs a week about UFO’s, train wrecks and the odd punch up at a bowling alley. …Is Off to Business is Pollard’s first album since parting ways with Merge late last year, and while it isn’t exactly a return to form, its bigger, bolder Todd Tobias production, riff heavy tunes and kaleidoscopic lyrical bromides are a damn sight better than 99% of his post-GBV oeuvre thus far.
As he embarks further into his solo career, the average length of a Pollard composition seems to be growing, and true to form, nearly everything on offer here hovers around the 3-4 minute mark. While tracks like “Confessions of a Teenage Jerk-Off” and “Gratification to Concrete” benefit from the increased duration and structure, others, namely “No One But I” and “Western Centipedes” are proof that many of his better ideas sputter out after two minutes, which, given some of the epigrammatic gems (”Gold Star for Robot Boy” and “Game of Pricks”) he’s penned, is reason enough to cut him some slack.
A good but hardly great offering, Pollard isn’t necessarily Off to Business here, however, he is at least heading in the right direction
MP3 Download – “Gratification To Concrete”
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