Formed in Dayton, Ohio in 1983, Guided By Voices (GBV) have gone through many changes over the years although founder member Robert Pollard remains a constant presence.
The current line-up are now on their 14th album together since 2017 so it’s safe to say that whatever voices Pollard is guided by, he has no problem with writing blocks. The tightness and power of the playing on this album is of a band on a roll.
GBV are one of a dying breed of unpretentious indie rock bands who have built their reputation on the quality of the songs rather than a compelling image. The impressionistic song writing on this latest album is described by the band’s PR team as containing ”extremes of prettiness, heaviness and poeticism.
Pretty comes in the form of Queen Of Spaces and heaviness all over the six minute Slowly On The Wheel. The latter’s complex time signatures and (poetic?) stream of consciousness narrative continues the prog-pop direction of GBV’s last album ‘Tremblers And Goggles By Rank’.
From titles like Another Day To Heal and Released Into Dementia, it appears that the album title is not a reference to the nickname for Los Angeles. Instead it denotes the warning signs of impending insanity and is name-checked in the obtuse lyrics of Instinct Dwelling: “better not see your contraband, you’ll end up in la-la land”
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With nods to The Beatles in Ballroom Etiquette and hints of American rock giants like REM and Pearl Jam, GBV do not trade so much in originality but on reliability.
Quite simply Guided By Voices is a name one can trust and after four decades and counting this is no small boast. Pollard sounds so full of energy that I would bet against him and his cohorts reaching the half century mark.
Guided By Voice’s official website
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