After
Bee Thousand gave
Guided By Voices a wider audience, it became evident that
Robert Pollard saw himself as more than just the band's songwriter and frontman, and as his career ambitions grew, he became increasingly frustrated with the limitations of his band. Matters came to a head prior to the recording of
Mag Earwhig! as
Pollard broke ties with longtime guitarist and fellow songwriter
Tobin Sprout and fired the rest of the group. While
Pollard and
Sprout soon buried the hatchet,
Sprout opted not to stay on as a full-time member of the group, and
Pollard was now
Guided By Voices' uncontested leader. He hired Cleveland-based blues/garage rockers
Cobra Verde as his backing band for the next
GBV album, and
Mag Earwhig! sounded a good bit different as a result; while there were a few stray four-track experiments with
Sprout scattered about, most of the album had a solid, professional sheen, and
Cobra Verde rock harder and sound tighter than any of the lineups
Pollard had worked with in the past. Unfortunately, his songwriting wasn't quite up to his usual standards, which the new clarity of this album makes all the more evident.
Pollard is incapable of making an album without a few fine songs, and "Bulldog Skin," "Sad If I Lost It," "Not Behind the Fighter Jet," and "Portable Men's Society" certainly fill the bill, but it may well be significant that
Mag Earwhig!'s most exciting song, the joyous "I Am a Tree," was written by
Cobra Verde's
Doug Gillard. While there's plenty to enjoy here,
Robert Pollard's next experiment in hi-fi record making,
Do the Collapse, would prove to be much more successful. ~ Mark Deming