There really is no such thing as too many catchy pop songs: sure, you can get sick of them if you have too many in too short a time, but like food, they'll still taste good tomorrow. Kleenex Girl Wonder, who's really a 19 year-old Madison student named Graham Smith, has released an overwhelming 25-song, 74-minute CD full of crunch little pop songs. Generally snappy, of middling fidelity, and prone to sonic fuctwiths like unplugging an amp jack in rhythm to provide percussion, Smith shows the inevitable Guided by Voices influences, along with moments sparkling of the Kinks, the Jam, the Who, and Unrest.

It's probably a good idea to break this one up into a couple-three smaller doses, because after an hour of two-three minute snappy little songs, they do start blending together. Which would be a shame, since in those smaller doses, there's very little here that doesn't approach pop genius. Smith comes up with great titles, too - along with the self-referential "Graham Smith Is the Strongest Man Alive" (following last year's album title Graham Smith Is the Coolest Man Alive), he gives us intriguing nuggets of nearsense like "The Cattle Call of the Would-Be," "Tendency Right Foot Forward," The Sound of Paul," and "The Mohican Antler-Yard Alphabet."

What hath Bob Pollard wrought?

Jeff Norman