The New Theory Of Everything

This month it was Gary Waleik's turn to collaborate with the endlessly productive Robert Pollard. A key figure of the 1980s Boston indie underground as guitarist and songwriter for the great Big Dipper, Waleik largely dropped out of music after that band split in the early '90s. (These days, he produces NPR's weekly sports program Only A Game.) For this long-distance collaboration, Waleik wrote and performed all the music--except the drums, which come courtesy of Bob Beerman of instrumental cult heroes Pell Mell--and sent the completed tracks to Pollard for lyrics and vocals. Even more than Pollard's recent collaborations with Tommy Keene and Richard Davies, Waleik's crisp guitar-pop tunes are a perfect match for Pollard's old-school aesthetic. Indeed, in retrospect it seems obvious that Big Dipper classics like "She's Fetching" were a direct inspiration for vintage Guided By Voices. Pollard rises to the occasion with one of his strongest efforts in ages, filled with clever, catchy lyrics delivered with self-assured zest. Immediate highlights include the power-pop instant classics "New Theory" and "(It's Good To Be) Bug Boy" and moodier offerings "I Am An All-Star" and "There Never Was A Sea of Love," not to mention the wistful jangle of the closing "Wish You Were Young," but taken as a whole, The New Theory of Everything is quite possibly Robert Pollard's most consistently entertaining album since Guided By Voices' mid-'90s hot streak.