by Kris Handel (@khandel84)
Upon the 20th anniversary of Robert Pollard and Doug Gillard’s Speak Kindly of Your Volunteer Fire Department we get a remaster of one of the shining moments in Pollard’s never-ending discography. This record was birthed from Pollard sending Gillard songs he had written for Gillard to compose music for separately which Pollard would add vocals to later, a process Pollard would continue to explore in the coming years. Gillard who had joined Guided by Voices a few years earlier, after a long musical career himself with Death of Samantha, Gem and Cobra Verde, continued to prove himself the perfect musical foil for Pollard’s unique and prodigious songwriting talent. Pollard and Gillard prove they are simpatico on basically every artistic level and prod at each other to make their finished pieces come alive in a sparkling fashion.
“Soul Train College Policeman” starts off with a blast of noise before giving way to Gillard’s slowly building guitar and Pollard in fine voice chiming out abstract couplets (“Post-Christma/cupcake hand grenades”), the backing moves into moody psychedelia territory. Here both of their gifts balance and play off each other extremely well as Pollard’s emphatic vocals add another layer to Gillard’s shape shifting pop-craft that just seems to meld seamlessly with each other. “And I Don’t (So Now I Do)” is a bright piece of power-pop stringing some tight guitar-fills alongside Pollard creating an echoing harmonized vocal backing at one of his most Who-indebted moments (and high points as well). There’s a constant bit of hum from some keyboard that adds a new color for Gillard to play off and keeps everything grounded in lightness which supports the overall atmosphere from start to finish.
This record hits some of its higher points on tracks that come off a bit darker or more subdued in some way, for instance on a song like “Slick as Snails.” Gillard provides a backing of crunching guitar and diving bass lines as well as just an astonishing guitar solo towards the middles of the song. Pollard follows suit with a bit of his finest songwriting while his vocals manage to exude enthusiasm and playfulness while also carrying a bit of weariness which just once again manages to hit all the right marks. “I Get Rid of You” is one of the more striking songs here as Gillard’s backing is at it gloomiest and sits in a pocket of a bit of menace and darkness. Aided by shattering keyboard effects, its a bit of culture-shock on this record. Pollard is at his most direct in his pensive lyrics of longing and confusion as he moans out lyrics like “I get rid of you/ with everything I do/ I get rid of you/you’re my kind of woman/tell me what to do” and “From here to you/ I’m seeing souls in collision…/who can they be/with eyes in all directions, but why can’t they see”.
Pollard has had many backing foils and ever-changing lineups through the many years of Guided by Voices, but in Doug Gillard he found a musician that would manage to challenge, engage and encourage movement into new dimensions. There’s a lot of differing moods and master craftmanship both musically and lyrically here that always offers something new on every repeated listen, there’s very little to throw away on this record that should not continue to be overlooked. One could argue that the mid through late-90’s produced some of Pollard’s most challenging musical collages that would provide countless rewards for those in what is the Cult of Pollard fandom. Speak Kindly of Your Volunteer Fire Department finds a way to constantly change its approaches yet finds a balance and completeness that really shouldn’t be missed.