The New Theory of Everything

VINYL FORMAT. Robert Pollard is no stranger to Mars. As a precocious earthling, he wrote one of his first songs about the red planet, and even though Bob's a peaceful man, the God of War's favorite celestial body keeps orbiting through his deep-space consciousness (see Pinball Mars, "Queen of Mars"). Is the constellation Ursa Major even in the same quadrant of the sky as Mars? Ask an amateur astronomer like Gary Waleik, stellar singer/guitarist of Boston's inimitable purveyors of experimental pop, Big Dipper. How these two astral music-makers wound up together in a classroom on the fabled planet of little green men and came up with The New Theory of Everything is anyone's guess. Oxygen tanks? Solaris-era spacesuits? Floating in a tin can far above the earth? However their minds melded, one wonders what they left on the blackboard as they worked out their hypothesis. Given the scope and beauty of the resulting music, it's surely a formula for perfect song-craft. The eleven tracks Pollard and Waleik beamed down to our humble blue planet for Mars Classroom's debut LP range from the irrepressibly hooky, guitar-driven "New Theory" to the trippy moodiness of "Paint the Rocks" and the Brit-chime riffing and dirty-sweet harmonies of "It Had to Come From Somewhere." The last track, an achingly languorous and slow-burning masterpiece called "Wish You Were Young," features Pollard's uncanny ability to put words together that can break your heart without plying a single sentimental cliché. The Hindi name for Mars comes from the Sanskrit word mangalam, meaning auspicious. It's clear that this music from a distant planet came together under a very good sign.