Pollard, Richard Davies partner as Cosmos

Having just grudgingly ordered my third Robert Pollard-related disc of the year — the Circus Devils’ Gringos, which follows the Boston Spaceships’ The Planets are Blasted and the solo The Crawling Distance — I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Pollard has yet another disc set for release. While his recent output has been spotty at best — I’d go so far as to say there’s nothing that really sticks with me since the surprisingly consistent solo album Robert Pollard is Off to Business from way back last June — this one holds promise. It’s a pairing with Australian singer-songwriter Richard Davies, leader of the late lamented Moles and, most importantly for orch-pop fans, one half of Cardinal.

Two MP3s from the project, dubbed Cosmos, were posted today. The first, “Nude Metropolis,” can be found at Magnet magazine’s web site. The second, “Hail Mary” is posted at Stereogum. According to the reports, the 14-track disc, Jar of Jam Ton of Bricks, is due June 9 on Pollard’s Happy Jack Rock Records. As with other Pollard collaborations, Davies wrote and recorded the music and Pollard wrote and sang the vocals and melodies. But four of the tracks, including “Hail Mary,” feature Davies alone.

The MP3s are fantastic, and stand in stark contrast with Pollard’s recent work. While Todd Tobias, who provides nearly all of the music for all of Pollard’s releases these days, is a talented and prolific guy, the Pollard/Tobias collaborations are starting to all sound the same (yes, of course they throw a curveball with the forthcoming acoustic Gringo). From the first note of “Nude Metropolis,” it’s clear that Pollard will need to step it up; this is majestic pop that requires more than a tossed off vocal. It reminds me of his most successful collaborations, on discs with Mac MacCaughan, Tommy Keene and Tobin Sprout.

Nosing around the net in an attempt to catch up with Davies, who hasn’t released a solo album since 2000′s Barbarians, led me to something that bills itself as his “official (for now)” web site. Not much news there, save for word that an unreleased disc, Tonight’s Music, has been shelved for at least two years, and, more exciting: Cardinal tracks. It seems Davies and Eric Matthews, the men behind Cardinal, got back together at some point during the past couple of years, but only came away with three tracks. That’s usually the kind of news met with frustration, but instead, it came with a link: download the tracks here. They’re good, if not entirely up to the standard of Cardinal’s sole, self-titled disc.