"Rhoda Rhoda" is the kind of effortless pop song that Robert Pollard used to toss off in his sleep, but by the time of his solo CD,
Normal Happiness, such breezy, carefree pop seemed refreshingly quaint. No one with a passable familiarity with Pollard's back catalog would suggest that he's suddenly become a noise-hungry experimenter -- just listen to
Same Place the Fly Got Smashed -- but the outlet afforded by his Fading Captain series certainly seemed to give him license to worry about entertaining himself first, and offering hooks to captivate listeners second.
The result is a recent catalog full of more challenging songs and light on the short, hooky tunes that so entranced listeners circa
Bee Thousand. His most successful releases, such as the masterful
From a Compound Eye, strike a nice balance between those two sides. Still, it was heartening to hear that
Normal Happiness was being billed by the man himself as the poppiest thing he'd ever done. Giving a listen to "Rhoda Rhoda" and other hook-filled songs here, one would be hard-pressed to argue, but taking the disc in full reveals it to be a fairly typical collection of modern-day Pollardiana. Uncle Bob writes and records the melody and lyrics, and his main foil, Todd Tobias (the
Rhoda to Pollard's
Mary, I guess), fills in the rest of the canvas.
With "Rhoda Rhoda," one assumes Tobias had little room to maneuver, as Pollard's strummed guitar and sweet vocal line fairly dominate proceedings. It's the kind of song that would likely stand up as strongly as a solo demo. Tobias adds drums and perhaps bass (things are a bit fuzzed-out so it's hard to tell) and little more, but it's enough to flesh out one of Pollard's strongest melodies in recent memory.
As for what it all means? Well, as usual, not much. It's easy to read self-reference into Pollard's lyrics, particularly with lines like "Everyone's talking to me, 'take a break from the year's bundle,'" which seems like Pollard acknowledging the oft-heard criticism of his ultra-prolific nature. In the end, it doesn't really matter. One can look for deep meaning, but as Pollard has often revealed, the lyrics are simply words that sound good carrying the melody, and in the case of "Rhoda Rhoda," they sound mighty fine indeed.
Labels: Normal Happiness