English Little League

Good album from the reunited classic lineup, of it's no Bee Thousand or Alien Lanes but still good nonetheless. Highly recommended.

Seems to me they were trying to sound like The Who on this one. Actually that whole 60's Fantastic English Rock thing that's so popular nowadays. The Key song goes to Tobin Sprout on this one "Islands(She Talks to Rainbows) which sounds to me like the Greatest "John's Children, Marc Bolan, Small Faces" song ever written which had to have been been sent straight from Heaven. Tobin Sprout is like George Harrison was in The Beatles. He keeps coming up with Jewels to put on the Robert Pollard Gold.

ya, a-ha, timeless yet minute, shapeless yet material, immaterial yet like e=mc2, memorable but vaporous; take home a copy now.

Let's get this straight: Bob Pollard is the world's greatest songwriter. And it's not even close. Who else in world is not only so legendarily prolific but also so chameleonic at the same time? From the dark churning synth-prog of the Circus Devils, to the Nick Lowe via Ricky Springfield delivery of the Keene Brothers, to the Flying Nun aping ice-pop of Airport 5. It's so astoundingly diverse but always so indistinguishably Pollard. Yet the common criticism of this `reunited' version of the band that made Bob Pollard's name has been that it often feels less like the 1993-96 classic GBV of old and more like just another Pollard solo record featuring some songs with his old drinking buddies, most notably Tobin Sprout. It's not exactly unmerited, as the last 3 classic lineup albums have had some great highlights, but none of the fully gelled, thought-out experimental synthesis of "Bee Thousand". The last and arguably best of the 3 recent albums, "Bears for Lunch", still felt like an album with Pollard and Sprout both working in their individual home studios on their own tracks, having the other three members play on various songs of their choosing."English Little League", while maybe not possessing any track as instantly anthemic as "Hangover Child" or "White Flag", is the first of these albums where the reformed GBV attempt to realize a more honed-in consistent indie rock album. The album has its heart rooted in the great rock-and-roll/pop of the past but wrapped throughout in mid-fi distortion. There's Pollard's brilliant claustrophobic ballad "Biographer Seahorse"; the echoed sweetness of Sprout's "She Talks In Rainbows"; "Flunky Minnows", which sounds like Bob attempting to bring his peculiar brand of pop to a long lost 1977 Brit art-punk number; Tobin further successfully spreading his experimental wings with "Quiet Game"; and "Birds" & "Noble Insect", both two of the best tracks on the album, and both could qualify as not only standout reunited GBV, but standout reunited Airport 5 songs as well, and we experience this two-headed braintrust really hit its stride.Every GBV fan will tell you that there's only 1 complete album (perhaps 2) that contains absolutely no Pollard patented tossed off, ill-thought, let's-patch-the-LP-to- 45-minutes filler. Unsurprisingly, "English Little League" ain't that (for that, you still have to go back to 93-96), and songs like "Crybaby 4-Star Hotel", "Reflections in a Metal Whistle" and "Burning Glass" still qualify as Pollard getting trashed on Mescal and mucking-off in his home studio in my opinion. But "English Little League" represents this new GBV making a push forward in creating a record that can dependably play out its entirety on my stereo, alleviating that all too common music lovers urge to shuffle through the garbage in search of a gem.

Why is there only one review for one of the best records of 2013? Is it everyone is taking Bob Pollard and co. for granted? Four GBV lps in a little over a year and this band has yet to stand down.Side 1 is solid as hell! It opens up with their most accessible song of all four lps, Xeno Pariah. I nice little pop gem and will have all the kids dancing in the streets. It leads right into Know Me As Heavy. This song is tremendous. Harkens back to the old days of sloppy brilliance.The three Tobin Sprout songs vary. Epstein's Ways is a beauty! One of Tobin's best to date. Islands is nice but a bit familiar. Quiet Game, the weakest, is a psychedelic trip and somewhat unmemorable. It's smack in the middle of possibly two of the best songs....Send To Celeste and Noble Insect. The former is possibly my favorite and Noble will stick in your head 24/7.Two other exceptional songs are on side 2. Biographer Seahorse is a Bob tune like you've never heard. It's Bob belting out this beautiful melody over a dreamy musical landscape. Phenomenal. Flunky Minnows sounds like the pop single off the album. A summer infested nugget.Taciturn Cave (great song) and Trash Can Full of Nails could have been shortened. Sir Garlic Breath, a Pollard/Demos composition, brings back the old days of drunken, twisted, porch songs. I love it.The rest falls in between ok (Crybaby 4-Star Hotel) to good (With Glass in Foot). Another solid lp from the boys of Dayton. Rock n' Roll is not dead. These guys made four albums in a year and a half and STILL fail to get the credit they fully deserve. This plethora of creative music is unprecedented in any era. Long live Rockathon!!!!

I should make clear I am not, in any sense, an indie rock fan. In fact, I have fairly little use for much rock music. And this review is an initial reaction to this interesting and challenging work--I certainly reserve the right to change my mind. For those who swear by this music, I hope you understand this review is not for you--it is for anyone who has a general interest in music and wonders whether this Cd would be worth a listen.The album art, which echoes the montages I associate with the late Kayak magazine, brings home the surrealistic nature of these songs. The music is often hard straight ahead rock--the band does not swing significantly. Yet it is not so leaden in its rhythms to be unpleasant and the rock cliches are often recycled in a fairly fresh manner. The singing is uniformly good and the harmonies often wonderful.The strangest component of the music are the lyrics. They do not address anything which resembles a typical pop song. The subjects are very surreal--clearly deliberately so. I often wondered if anything like real meaning could be attached to these songs. I feel for a song to be truly immortal, it must evoke universal emotions in the listener. These songs invoke simple puzzlement for me.Yet still I am left that something important and significant has been expressed here. If I try to hold it, I feel as if I try to grip the wind. If I just let myself be in the breeze, I may have a chance to understand.This is an intriguing and powerful Cd I would recommend to any lover of rock.

They've found their stride again and deliver a diverse selection with consistency throughout. Pollard and Sprout are both on sparkling form and they've upped their game with the production which suits the material. Reminding me mostly of Under the Bushes, Under the Stars (the album that split this line-up first time around) I am now excited for the next one to be the GBV album that never was.

One of the best indie group in the world.

Good Album

As describedWorks well