Normal Happiness is an album from Robert Pollard

Robert Pollard

Robert Pollard is an American rock musician and singer-songwriter who is the leader and creative force behind indie rock group Guided by Voices, who disbanded in 2004, only to reform in 2010...

. Like its predecessor, it was recorded with Pollard on basic guitar and vocal tracks, with instrumental overdubs from producer Todd Tobias

Todd Tobias

Todd Tobias is a record producer and musician/ multi-instrumentalist best known for his work with Robert Pollard and his band Guided by Voices. Other projects include Circus Devils, Clouds Forming Crowns, the Sleeptalkers, The Library is on Fire, the Celebrity Pilots, Kramies, Brian Lisik, Slark...

. Normal Happiness debuted at #46 on the Billboard Top Independent Albums chart [].

Pollard explained the writing process and the title of Normal Happiness in a Gothamist interview:

"I wrote a total of 47 songs and it just so happened that my favorite ones happened to be the poppier ones and that tone or attitude carried over into the recording process itself. I didn't feel the final product was overly "sappy" so I decided to call it "Normal Happiness". Not too heavy and not light. http://gothamist.com/2006/11/13/gothamist_band_53.php"

Working titles for the album were You Were Saying? and Gasoline Ragtime http://www.gbvdb.com/album.asp?albumid=2528.

The album received a 72/100 rating at metacritic

Metacritic

Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...

http://www.metacritic.com/music/artists/pollardrobert/normalhappiness.

Track listing

1. "The Accidental Texas Who"
2. "Whispering Whip"
3. "Supernatural Car Lover"
4. "Boxing About"
5. "Serious Birdwoman (You Turn Me On)"
6. "Get a Faceful"
7. "Towers and Landslides"
8. "I Feel Gone Again"
9. "Gasoline Ragtime"
10. "Rhoda Rhoda"
11. "Give Up the Grape"
12. "Pegasus Glue Factory"
13. "Top of My Game"
14. "Tomorrow Will Not Be Another Day"
15. "Join the Eagles"
16. "Full Sun (Dig the Slowness)"