Universal Truths and Cycles

There was a time when Robert Pollard was on the verge of becoming an indie-rock Peter Pan-- with a beer ...

Check out our album review of Artist's Universal Truths and Cycles on Rolling Stone.com.

After leaving the comfy indie confines of Matador Records for the corporate sponsorship of bigger indie TVT Records, Robert Pollard and his partners in Guided by Voices abandoned the sloppy production that had long been their hallmark and starting playing on the same field as the big boys, which offended purists but also resulted in one of the band's best albums, 2001's Isolation Drills, which boasted a clean but potent production by Rob Schnapf.

<p>In this week's pop: INC manage to make anti-globalisation sound fun, Sonic Youth remember how to write a tune and Lee Hazlewood gets covered in style. Plus the rest of the week's releases.</p>