Normal Happens is a collection of short, breezy power-pop songs with a lo-fi edge. It's easy to listen to, easy to like.  Full text...

Normal Happiness is supposed to be the record full of two-to-three-minute pop songs (as if that's something out of the ordinary for him), but to anyone who bought that: This album could easily be the third disc of FaCE, even if it is a bit more cohesive than Pollard's debut on Merge records.  Full text...

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."  Full text...

Normal Happiness, his second "proper" solo album since folding Guided By Voices, offers a new, consistent Pollard. While it eschews the unlistenable doodles that litter most of his albums (and comprise all of some) in favour of upbeat 60s-styled guitar pop, Pollard never quite pulls out the killer hook or the great chorus that he could manage at will in his early/mid-90s golden period.  Full text...

The lo-fi power pop he pioneered with his former band Guided by Voices has slipped onto the sidelines this time around. Vocally, Pollard seems to be running a race with his mid-tempo music and he always comes up short. He only seems to regain control on a few of his slower more melodic songs like “Boxing About” and “Give Up the Grape”. It’s songs like this, especially “Grape”, that hint that the Pollard of old is still lurking somewhere in the shadows.   Full text...