Former Guided By Voices frontman Robert Pollard has written a lot of songs in his time but I doubt many of those on “We All Got Out of the Army” will go down as examples of his best work. I believe only die-hard fans of Pollard will have the need or inclination to pick up this album as it meanders from forgettable track to forgettable track, with a few bona fide howlers thrown in, and, ultimately, I just don’t think he was trying very hard on this one.

‘Red Pyramid’ was probably my favourite off the album, a series of simple guitar chords bound together by gravelly vocals and the maudlin attitude in which they’re sung gives the track a Grunge feel. ‘Talking Dogs’ was another good track, with some catchy chord changes and pleasant keyboards that complement the relaxed, plodding pace. At 1 minute and 12 seconds, it’s probably the shortest song on the album but benefits from its short running time by making it short, sweet and, more importantly, catchy. Guided By Voices were known for their short track lengths, but with other tracks on the album such as ‘Your Rate Will Never Go Up’, ‘On Top of Vertigo’ and ‘Wild Girl’ their welcome was overstayed despite their short, 1 and a half minute lengths and I grew tired of the melodies even in that short space of time.

The low point comes with certain songs that are just unpleasant to listen to, due to screechy, off key guitar playing or horribly produced vocals. ‘Rice Train’ shows potential as a scuzzy Blues song but descends into a mess of relentless, unpleasant guitar playing and drums that sound like they’re being played by a 5 year old. On top on all that Pollard adopts a gruff but whiny and off-key tone of voice and caps it off with one of the MOST irritating choruses in recent memory, in which the stabbing away at instruments is backed by Pollard repeating the line “We’re taking the rice train, the not quite white train, the not quite brown train, I’m taking the rice train”. Now, my ears can take some musical abuse, but I cant remember being quite as annoyed by any song for a while as I was with ‘Rice Train’.

It didn’t have to be that way as Pollard flexes his well honed song-writing skills over quite a few tracks on the album. Both ‘His Knighthood Paragraph’ and ‘Post Hydrate Update’ show some influence of The Who in their guitar playing and song structures and while I didn’t personally love them, I can see how others would. ‘Silk Rotor’ and ‘I Can See’ that begin the album are perfectly serviceable Pop tracks that get the best out of Pollard's voice. Among others, these tracks show that Pollard can still write a tune but never once did I get particularly involved in a song or feel the need to rewind the track and have another listen to what I’d just heard. To be honest, having listened to the entire album 3 times now, I doubt I could pick out a particular favourite or even whistle any of the melodies on “We All Got Out Of The Army”.

It almost seems like a collection of B-sides rather than an album; there’s no real cohesion between the songs in style or tone and a lack of memorable tunes relegate this to fans-only territory. cSo, its not bad but, dare I say it, just a little boring. As one of the most prolific songwriters of our times, with over 1000 songs registered to the guy since the mid 80’s, it feels a bit like Robert Pollard is on the back burner on this album. Too many of the songs don’t do anything for me, feeling drawn out and a bit tedious. The instrument playing is fine but sometimes feels a bit sterile, like a group of session musicians reading the notes and playing the songs perfectly adequately but without any personal flair or involvement. The mixing was also problematic; Pollard hasn’t got the strongest voice on “We All Got Out of the Army” and sometimes it can easily get drowned out by the emphasis on the guitar in the final mix.