In the year 2015 Robert Pollard released a solo album, “Faulty Superheroes”,
a Circus Devils album, “Stomping Ground” a fourth “Suitcase” 4 cd set,
a three albums by his new side band “Ricked Wicky.”
Some Guided By Voices fans have a hard time keeping up with
all of the releases and some just give up.
The three Ricked Wicky albums are not something a self respecting
Guided By Voices fan should be without.
The amazing thing about the three Ricked Wicky albums is,
they all have a different sound, like they were recorded
years apart in different studios.
The band consist of Robert Pollard, GBV alumni Kevin March on drums
and Todd Tobias, Circus Devils multi-instrumentalist on bass,
as a rhythm section, they lock into each other creating a tight dynamic.
Nick Mitchell is a great addition to the GBV world,
his guitar playing can be heavy and sometimes very 70’s sounding,
while still sounding very GBV-like.
There were three great singles taken from the album,
“Piss Face” , “Mobility” and “Death Metal Kid” all of these songs
are what I would call Heavy/Pop/Rock.
Some of Bob’s most powerful stuff, thanks to the band.
So much great stuff on this album,
the band goes early 70’s Prog with “Cow Headed Moon” and
“Rotten Backboards” both feature Nick Mitchell on
Mellotron.
Bob and Nick do an acoustic guitar duet on “Even Today and Tomorrow”
which is also included as an instrumental track, “Tomorrow.”
Nick Mitchell has one song “The Intellectual Types”, which he does the vocal.
Which kind of comes out of nowhere and breaks the flow of the album,
but he does such a great job on this album, he can have his song.
but not among my favorites of the album.
But after that comes three great Pollard Pop/Rock songs in a row,
“Uranus Flies”, “The Important Girls” and “Frenzy of Blame”,
how the hell does he do it?
“Miles of Concentration” and “A Real Stab” are also great rock songs.
“I Sell the Circus” might just be my favorite of the three,
but that opinion changes when I listen to the other two.
But this is truly a Great album.
It would be great if Ricked Wicky became a full time touring band,
this music needs to be played live,
Guided By Voices play quite of few of the songs from the three albums on the recent tour.
By the way, the vinyl record version comes with a Robert Pollard guitar pick,
as depicted on the album cover.
Great Album!!! |
