As Robert Pollard is involved, there is no real distinction between a solo album and a GBV album, as it's all just what Pollard is coming up with in a single sitting in the shitter. You always expect a few hummable tunes, such as the new wave catchy rocker "Subspace Biographies", pleasant "I Am A Scientist" copy "Wrinkled Ghost", as well as a homage to the Who, where "Whiskey Ships" strums dramatic riffs and at 2 minutes feels like 15 minutes of The Who's "A Quick One". You can also expect some silly throwaways, like the drunken sputtering of "Showbiz Opera Walrus" and spacey "Pick Seeds From My Skull", which uses the ridiculous harmonizer effect my band plays around with in the studio when we need a laugh. "Make Use"**** stands out with a pulsing, churning guitar riff. While the morose piano ballad "People Are Leaving"**** would make more sense coming from Elliot Smith, it's also memorable. "Vibrations In The Woods"**** and "Just Say The Word" use lo-fi recording as a tool turning slapped bass and percussion into weird and mangled sounds, though 3 minutes of meandering chording with bass noises in the latter is pushing it. Some tracks qualify better as song sketches than actual songs, though some like a tuneful "Caught Waves Again" are better than ponderous drags like "Rumbling Joker". At 34 minutes the album isn't generous on the minutes, but Pollard is never stingy with the ideas, half-baked though some of them are.
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