LIFEGUARDS

Waving at the Astronauts

robertpollard.net

Ohio-born Robert Pollard has released music under various pseudonyms during his long and storied career. But regardless of what it says on the album cover, the music within tends to sound a lot like Guided by Voices, the indie-rock institution he founded in the early ’80s and masterminded for more than two decades. Lifeguards is a collaboration with onetime GBV guitarist Doug Gillard, who wrote the music for all 10 of these songs—and as fans might expect, the album pairs chunky Who-style guitars with Pollard’s typically elliptical wordplay. Astronauts may follow a familiar flight path, but with Pollard at the controls there are more than enough loopty-loops and barrel rolls to recommend the ride.