It is somehow 2009, five years on from the dissolution of lo-fi heroes Guided by Voices and at least 10 since the agreed-upon peak of his powers, and Bob Pollard's making some of the best music of his life. Three albums deep into the Boston Spaceships and the prolific songwriter is on a tear to rival a few of his best-ever runs. One wonders if the nascent lo-fi revival has lit a fire under the dude after being relegated for much of this decade to the lower rungs of indie favor. Last fall's first Spaceships touchdown Brown Submarine was good, this spring's Planets Are Blasted was great, and this summer's fine Elephant Jokes seemed imbued with an energy leftover from the obviously fruitful Spaceships sessions. Now, in Zero to 99, we've yet another winner.
Zero to 99 starts with "Pluto the Skate", a squelchy GBV rarity old enough to be bar mitzvahed. Pollard's long dipped into his vast back catalog for new releases, but "Pluto" further illustrates just what a good thing Bob's got going in fellow Spaceships Chris Slusarenko and John Moen. Slusarenko and Moen seem to know just what Pollard needs, and their efforts whittle down some of his eccentricities and aversions to editing. The pre-Spaceships "Pluto", for example, is skeletal, sludgy, decidedly lo-fi, and little more than a sketch; the one on Zero to 99 trades analog hiss for a juicier Steve Albini-esque squirm, doubling the volume and intensifying the central squish into the gnarled metal of a car crash. To date, the Spaceships have largely played up Pollard's fondness for chunky riff-pop to fine effect; it's nice to hear them going at a weird one from back when, and nicer still to hear them pull it off.
That notwithstanding, Zero to 99 is by and large a power-pop record in the vein of its two predecessor: catchy-as-hell cracklers peppered with form-fitting arrangements and an emphasis on Pollard's impressive pipes. What separates the Spaceships songs from much of Pollard's previous work is the tunes feel fully formed; running times hang out around the three-minute mark, verses bleed into choruses and back into verses, and there's a distinct feeling between one track and the next often lacking in Pollard's more sketchbook-like records. Pollard has run into trouble when he veers towards more conventional song structures-- we might call this "doing the collapse"-- but there's a shapely quality to the Spaceships' melodies that never belies their quirk. That's as true as ever on Zero to 99, particularly in its first five tunes; after "Pluto", set highlight "How Wrong You Are" feels like a pile of hooks, the sturdy "Radical Amazement" builds to a fine little point, thrashabout "Found Obstruction Rock N' Rolls" is simple but effective, and ballad "Question Girl All Right" is puzzlingly affecting.
Things get a tad messier around Zero's midsection; despite an assist from R.E.M.'s Peter Buck, "Let It Rest for a Little While" doesn't do much to distinguish itself until Bob takes the chorus from a whisper to a scream, "Psycho Is a Bad Boy" seems to favor attitude over aptitude and underutilizes its horn stabs, "Godless" goes nowhere (although to its credit, it gets there quick), and "Meddle" thuds along unremarkably. Zero picks up again with the gallant "Go Inside", peaks anew around "Exploding Anthills" (the chorus, after all, is "I've been drinking," a Pollardian statement to rival any other), and finishes strong on the back of the bitter "The Comedian" and the short, sweet "A Good Circuitry Soldier".
I can't believe I'm writing this about Robert effing Pollard, but if anything, consistency proves Zero to 99's greatest flaw. Brown Submarine and Planets Are Blasted took more risks and accordingly felt more rewarding; beyond "Pluto", Zero's not exactly a bushwhacker, and while the songs are by and large strong and the performances uniformly top-notch, there's a slight whiff of sameyness to the proceedings here that could stand just a little shaking up. If you've heard the last couple of Spaceships records-- and you oughta-- you'll find Zero to 99 pleasant but not particularly surprising, and even the high points don't tower quite like those of its predecessors. Still, weakest Spaceships LP though it may be, as a Pollard-related record in the aughts, Zero to 99 stands pretty tall.
