18. Do The Collapse (1999)

Although Pollard already learned the perils of attempting power pop on Sandbox, he went and recruited Ric Ocasek, the dark prince of power pop, to produce this 1999 misguided grab for commercial success. To call it a “sell-out” is unfair; I think Pollard was more in love with the idea of making a record the kids of America could rock out to in their cars than he was in cashing in. But in part because of the production cues, and in part because Pollard’s songwriting isn’t exactly at its best here, the record sounds like any number of alternative one-hit wonders from the ’90s. And fittingly, I’m not sure I saw any album pop up more in early-2000s bargain bins than this one.

Of course, there are still some worthwhile tracks here. Opener “Teenage FBI” is a crunchy earworm worthy of early Weezer, even if it’s almost derailed by Ocasek’s dated keyboards. And think of “Hold On Hope” as GBV’s “High And Dry,” hitting all the right mid-’90s alternative tearjerker notes (albeit a little too perfectly, right down to the Swelling Strings™).