Description

When we last heard from Guided By Voices, they had released an astonishing four albums in just over 12 months. Each has a distinctive creative identity: Zeppelin Over China was a meat-and-potatoes double album, Warp And Woof was a return to the bands low-fidelity roots and under-two-minute earworms, Sweating The Plague was a slice of moody stadium rock, and Surrender Your Poppy Field was an unpredictable grab-bag of all of the above. After venturing through the tangled brambles of Plague and Poppy Field, here is a sunny summer reprieve, a relentless barrage of hooksMirrored Aztec is the latest stop on this runaway train.

Like its immediate predecessors, Mirrored Aztec is both its own entity and unmistakably GBV. Its also their most immediately welcoming and inviting offering in yearstheres nothing a fan of The Who, Big Star, or Wire, wouldnt love. For the GBV uninitiated, the clean, confident hooks of highlights Bunco Men, Haircut Sphinx, A Whale Is Top Notch, Party Rages On and the strummy To Keep An Area will resonate immediately. It also contains some unprecedented GBV moments, too, like Math Rock, an apparent tribute to the titular subgenre featuring classroom instruments and a childrens choir, Please Dont Be Honest, a dreamy reversal of the bands 2016 song and album Please Be Honest, and Thank You Jane, perhaps the most open-hearted, guileless power-pop song from Pollards pen in ages.

If Pollards discography107 albums and countingseems intimidating, do not fear! With a brand-new, high-quality, all-the-waythere album every several months, its abundantly clear that no bands fanbase has more fun.

FMD carries a cornucopia of other GBV / Robert Pollard related releases; ask your salesperson for details.