Honey Locust Honky Tonk

by Robert Pollard

Overview

Robert Pollard's 19th solo outing and second 2013 release (GBV's English Little League bests Honey Locust Honky Tonk by three months) continues in the vein of 2012's Jack Sells the Cow by offering up a fragmented set that looks verbose on paper (17 tracks) but yields a light cache at just over a half-hour long. Frontloaded with a pair of cuts ("He Requested Things," and "Circus Green Machine") that sound like post-Tommy fever dreams, Pollard's fetish for all things Townshend peppers a great many of the proceedings, especially the more abbreviated numbers (of which there are more than usual) like "Suit Minus the Middle" and "Shielding Whatever Needs You." That said, sifting through Pollard's pop-fueled stream of consciousness hardly makes Jack a dull boy, as his acumen for the genre is almost as impressive as his productivity within it. After all, he's not making these records for newbies, as evidenced by the fact that the album's four best songs arrive in its last act. The wistful, Document-era R.E.M.-inspired "I Killed a Man Who Looks Like You" sets the scene for the one-two punch of the anthemic "Real Fun Is No One's Monopoly" and the propulsive, Pixies-esque "It Disappears in the Least Likely Hands (We May Never Not Know)," both of which manage to locate that sweet spot between soulful and surreal that has always served as the point of conversion for Pollard/GBV fanatics. The measured, modest, and melancholy "Airs" applies the finishing touches, wrapping up another flight of fancy from of one rock & roll's most illustrious, real-time dreamers. ~ James Christopher Monger

Product Details

Release Date:	01/08/2013
Label:	Fire Records
UPC:	0809236133021
Rank:	173220

Tracks

1. He Requested Things
2. Circus Green Machine
3. Strange and Pretty Day
4. Suit Minus the Middle
5. Drawing a Picture
6. Who Buries the Undertaker
7. She Hides in Black
8. Her Eyes Play Tricks on the Camera
9. Find a Word
10. I Have to Drink
11. Flash Gordon Style
12. Igloo Hearts
13. Shielding Whatever Needs You
14. I Killed a Man Who Looks Like You
15. Real Fun Is No One's Monopoly
16. It Disappears in the Least Likely Hands (We May Never Not Know)
17. Airs

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Robert Pollard   Primary Artist,Piano,Guitar,Vocals,Bass,Drums
Todd Tobias   Bass,Drums,Guitar,Keyboards

Technical Credits

Chris Keffer   Mastering
Robert Pollard   Artwork,Composer
Todd Tobias   Engineer,Producer
Joe Patterson   Producer,Engineer
John Courtney   Photography