Cool Planet is the new album of Guided by Voices, who were popular in the '80s and '90s. This album is the sixth since the band reformed in 2010.

The band is very much an acquired taste. If you can stomach the fact that Robert Pollard constantly appears to be singing a different song, in a different key, to the rest of the band, then you'll probably take a lot away from this album. For me, though, it was a little too much to take.

From his off-key warbling on 'Authoritarian Zoo' to the feral yelping on 'All American Boy' I felt I was listening to a vanity album; as though someone with way more money than actual talent, had booked a recorded studio, laid down a few rough tracks, got a half-decent producer to try and polish it and then released it hoping for the best.

I did enjoy 'Bad Love is Easy to Do' - but other than that the other tracks just grated on me. While I wasn't a fan, I can appreciate the music and lyrics, I just couldn't get past Pollard's delivery.

5

Nick Smithson