Quicksilver

It isn't hard to recast the opening lines of this song as a capsule review of my feelings about the album on which it appears: Looking at my window, at first I didn't like you. And now I need time, now I know." I'm not sure what it was about Not in My Airforce that failed to connect with me, though I would imagine that opener "Maggie Turns to Flies" didn't help. After that disjointed blast that was more claustrophobic than what had come before (at least that I was familiar with at this point just a few years into my Guided by Voices fanship), this song, with it's stripped-down, demo-quality sound, didn't hook me. I had enough Robert Pollard music, even at that point, that I felt fine setting the album aside in favor of more compelling music.

In a way, I'm glad I did, for it means I have an album of good-to-great Pollard songs from my favorite era of his career to rediscover. With that rediscovery has come new appreciation. "Quicksilver" still isn't a stunner by any means, but in the context of the album, it's a well-sequenced palate cleanser between the frenetic "Maggie" and the arena-rock bombast of "Girl Named Captain."