Guided by Voices - Universal Truths and Cycles
(Matador)
De gustibus non disputandum est, right? Right? I mean, that's the angle that's going to be exploited here in hopes that something good may be gleaned from the new Guided By Voices album, perhaps the best one since Isolation Drills (ha ha). Idiosyncratic caveats: I'm old at the ripe age of twenty-three, and my Guided By Voices heyday was Bee Thousand and Alien Lanes. I'm partial to Tobin Sprout. My hair is getting thin. I'm grumpier, less responsive to Pollard's new direction. I've measured out my life in lo-fi hiss. And so on, parallel Prufrock and Pollard, blech, blah. You get the drift. Maybe my age, my preference for earlier Guided By Voices, is what makes me dislike this album so (not as much as Isolation Drills, however!). Last time I saw them on tour, hmmm, over a year ago, the crowd was populated with "Teenage FBI," moshing, kicking, raucous behavior, "Kids settle down!" The club looking like a demographic chart, as you walked back the age increased, the bitterness, life weighing heavily on their shoulders, beer(s) in hand, slowly sipping the existential dread out of being. New Guided By Voices for a new generation? I can handle that; band maturation, evolution isn't a bad thing at all. But what if the new direction is blatant pandering?
That's the thing I've yet to figure out. Did Guided By Voices blatantly change the way they make music in order to avoid a rut or did they do it to get exposed to a wider audience? Is the newest Guided By Voices (don't let the prodigal son's return to Matador fool you, it's much like the rest) pandering to entice those alienated by their major label dreams to get them to rejoin the fold? Does Mag Earwig sit like a portcullis blocking my enjoyment from the latter albums because I don't like this new direction or because they changed it in a blatant attempt to garner more fans and when that didn't work (surprise!) they then went back to the lo-fi mixed with rock formula? Hmmm. Conundrum, I guess. That's why a review of this is a somewhat daunting task. Saying it's a bad album, and really it's not that bad—a bit pedestrian, a lot of boring guitar work and go-nowhere songs, but in the scheme of things, it's better than ninety percent or so of the music that's out and about in the world—could be chalked up to personal prejudice, a hope that the next album will return them to the halcyon days. On the other hand, saying it's a bad album could be completely justified if indeed Pollard is merely following the whims of his rabid fans.
So, bulls of a horn I'm torn upon, like Buridan's ass I stand unable to make a decision. Either the album just isn't any good due to the aforementioned boringness/pandering/age-problem or it's a decent bit of rock the kids will enjoy. We'll take it like this: if you are a staunch old-school Guided By Voices fan, regardless of the fact they're touting this as "Alien Lanes meets Isolation Drills," stay away. In fact, not only stay away, stop reading this right now and consciously work to forget the last few minutes of your life happened. Now, if you're a Young Turk or an older gent or dame who either sticks with a band regardless of their ups and downs or who likes unfettered, quasi-abstract rock music, or who has no discerning taste anyway, then pick this album up. There are a few good surprises, "Wire Greyhounds," "Cheyenne," even my initial revulsion due to "Everywhere With Helicopters" was waylaid by its catchiness. The album does begin to drag towards then end though; nineteen songs isn't what it once was.
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