Guided By Voices - Static Airplane Jive 7" (1993)

For a man who's no doubt written at least three new songs in the time it will take you to read this review of six old ones, Bob Pollard is nevertheless best enjoyed in small doses -- though clocking in at well under ten minutes, Static Airplane Jive still measures favorably against anything in the Guided by Voices catalog, eliminating the half-baked ideas and ill-considered experiments that overflow GBV full-lengths to focus on Pollard at his most direct and accessible. At least half of the material ranks among Pollard's very finest efforts: the opening "Big School" is the first of his great anthems -- the kind of ridiculously infectious pop song that he writes better and more often than anyone else -- "Gelatin, Ice Cream, Plum" is the very definition of lo-fi aesthetics, and "Hey Aardvark" effortlessly encapsulates White Album-era Beatles in the span of about 30 seconds. Indeed, the brevity of Static Airplane Jive as a whole is shocking given both how much ground it covers and how truly memorable all the songs are -- there's not a hint of self-indulgence to be found.