Weird Rivers and Sapphire Sun

For every "Dogwood Grains" that seems to redeem the presence of In Shop We Build Electric Chairs as something more than a clearing out of the dregs of Robert Pollard's box of tapes, there is a "Weird Rivers and Sapphire Sun," a song whose best feature is its title.

Over an out-of-tune acoustic guitar strum, Robert Pollard sings... something. Again and again. It sounds like his misguided idea of a Native American chant (something bolstered toward the end of the song when he bursts forth in his best, painful Tonto impersonation).

Look, I'm a big fan of Pollard. Far from the biggest, but I'm up there. I like to hear his music in all states, from the roughest demo to the most polished attempt at striking it rich. So, it's my fault that I keep buying Pollard releases, knowing that I am doing so only for the sake of having them. After today, I'll never consciously listen to this song again. That's OK. Every note I hear helps me to better appreciate all of the other notes.

Signifying UFO

In homage to J.D. Considine, who mastered the art of the brief review (sample: For the supergroup GTR, his review, in its entirety - "SHT."), I'm inclined to write "signifying crap." That, however, is putting forth too much effort. Nineteen seconds of lo-fi keyboard noodling does not a song make, Mr. Pollard. Then again, given its home on this disc, that's par for the course.

Dogwood Grains

I had long considered In Shop We Build Electric Chairs to be among the small handful of completely unredeemable releases from Robert Pollard, a blast of noise and lower-than-lo-fi "songs" scraped from the bottom of his suitcase, released early in the Fading Captain series as if to test the loyalty of his legion of patrons.

And then I come across a song like "Dogwood Grains," and I'm forced to reassess that stand. It's short, just a minute long, a boombox-fidelity recording of Pollard accompanying himself on guitar while people chat in the background.

The lyrics, in their entirety --

His world has fallen apart
and when the autumn came the clouds descended.
Comes an angel in an army suit
You've always been my favorite Martian.
You live in an airport, you live in my heart.
I'll hide you from the cameras
my own private freak show
You're different, so different...

-- seem to be about a Martian who comes to Earth under less-than-ideal circumstances, lucky enough to be found by Pollard's protagonist who is willing to shield the alien from the world. Reading the lyrics divorced from the music, one could be forgiven for thinking Pollard's tongue is firmly in cheek, and perhaps it is. But he delivers it in a heartfelt manner, singing sweetly yet firmly over acoustic guitar. One imagines Pollard sitting in his front room, surrounded by friends, proving once again how easy it is for him to come up with a song.

It's the kind of thing that, after 44 Fading Captain releases, seems rather fitting for a release like this. Early in the series, however, I'll admit I wasn't ready to put in the work required to find the gems like this amid the noisy roadblocks erected by Pollard. It looks like I've got some work to do.