Robert Pollard - Our Gaze - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

2015 from the most prolific artist in modern rock 'n' roll. Faulty Superheroes jets off Pollard's vinyl-grooved runway like the prototype for some new supersonic power pop fighter jet, and at this point in his career is anyone surprised that the 12 tracks on this effort are uniformly awesome? The answer is no. Exactly no one is surprised. The biggest thing with which Pollard has to contend is his own miraculously consistent greatness. That he rarely-if ever-stumbles is some kind of marvel, and perhaps implies superpowers of his own. Faulty Superheroes has a tossed-off, effortless magnificence for which the rash of indie-whatevers trailing in his wake from Bee Thousand to the present constantly strive, and fail to achieve. The constant sense of surprise, of wonder, of discovery that one routinely finds in superbly structured instant bomp classics like InchFaster the GreatInch is not something that can be taught, or learned, or imparted, or copied. Pollard largely abandoned the four-track 20 years ago and still gets tagged as Inchlo-fi,Inch which is a word that makes even less sense now in the days of digital recording than it did then in the days of occasionally tape-hiss smothered coulda-shoulda-been hits. Are there bum notes here and there? Recording-accidents-on-purpose left in like crushed empty beer cans strewn around the miniature, glimmering pop/rock/psych/prog construction sites left standing in the wake of each finished/unfinished songs? You betcha. The Guided By Voices aesthetic was formed and developed and continues to be improved by Pollard, which makes all the more puzzling the hand-wringing that accompanies every announcement of a so-called GBV Inchbreak-upInch (or for that matter, InchreunionInch). As long as we have Bob, we need nothing else. And we have Bob. If you're counting your blessings, don't forget that one. It's kinda crucial.

Antonín Dvorák is undoubtedly the composer who, along with Bedrich Smetana (1824- 1884), brought Czech music to global prominence. It is worth noting that a quarter of Dvorák's oeuvre consists of chamber music, an astonishing amount for a composer who was active in the second half of the 19th century. Dvorák's four piano trios are, alongside his far more numerous string quartets, among the most significant chamber works he wrote. After the first two trios of 1875/76, which give an early indication of the composer's creative intensity, the trios presented here, namely op. 65 (1883) and op. 90 (1890/91), show him to be a fully accomplished master of this genre. The underlying sentiment of the four-movement Trio op. 65 in F minor might be described as somber, passionate and dramatic. This character is already evident in the opening idea, played by the strings in unison, a theme that then undergoes complex development and builds up to a first dramatic climax. The Mori Trio presents these works with vigor and aplomb.

Born in a rural upstate NY town of 500 people, Cara Beth Satalino aka Outer Spaces, studied studio composition at Purchase College, where she also met her bandmate and life partner Chester Gwazda (producer of the first three Future Islands albums, and Dan Deacon's Bromst and America, among others). The Baltimore-based artist's new album Gazing Globe documents Satalino's effort to find herself through the creation of her own esoteric world of pop songs. While writing Gazing Globe, Satalino felt lost and listless, after she and Gwazda decided to take a break from their long-term relationship. To deal with her anxiety and self-doubt, and ultimately evolve emotionally and spiritually, she began a daily meditation practice, and writing songs. InchI think I was trying to get back to myself and my identity, separate from my relationship,Inch says Satalino. The result of her efforts is a collection of Murmur-era REM-esque power-pop songs, full of catchy guitar riffs, sonically juxtaposing her despondent perspective.