By: Michael Hernandez/Columnist
michael.hernandez@fiusm.com
Photo courtesy of www.gbv.com
Reunions can be a misleading situation. Sometimes it could mean a long-awaited tour in the making, the possibility of a new album in the works, or the publicize a “Greatest Hits” of sorts to commercialize themselves to the highest degree.
Ostensibly, Guided By Voices would not fall in the latter category. After their last album in 2004, the deemed “Classic” line up from ‘93-’96 of Robert Pollard, Tobin Sprout, Mitch Mitchell, Kevin Fennell, Jimmy Pollard and Greg Demos reunited in 2010 for a world tour, and subsequently to record their latest LP “Let’s Go Eat the Factory”. Does time actually change who these artists are or were? Have they reformed to reinvent their established sound from years past? These questions surround their latest effort, and it looks like they answer these questions with nostalgic aplomb.
Guided By Voices are known for their plug-and-play sound, bashing through your ears, minute by minute, and the rush is never impeded with. On “Let’s Go Eat the Factory”, opening track “Laundry and Lasers” gives the impression they’ve been stuck in the humble garages of Dayton, Ohio for all these years. I completely have the image of these full grown men in shaggy attire in their fifties while a garage door slowly opens for their heralded reveal.
The echo of Pollards vocals shake with the repeating distortion throughout this quick-striking track. and much of the album plays along to this precedent. It is refreshing to hear a band that does not need to evolve from how one remembers them. Maturity would make it seem like these men went soft and are tracing back desperately for nostalgic memories, but “Let’s Go…” could fall in place with their material from the ‘90s without much upheavel.
I don’t know if “recording a session with one mic on the floor to a 4-track” could be considered a type of sound production, but that’s the style you should expect, or lack-thereof. That’s not a slight as this is them sounding and feeling authentic in their lo-fi glory and not an automated produced machine. “Doughnut for a Snowman” audaciously features a recorder in the beginning of the song, and its brevity actually migrates well in what could have been just a perfunctory device.
Brevity is appropriate for this album, as in a span of 41 minutes the 21 tracks clang through, but with notable toss ups like the bass-driven “The Head” and the peacefully paced “Old Bones” with Tobin Sprout taking lead duties guide the album with plenty of dexterity and not just one-note lo-fi listens. Enthusiastic ADHD punk rock never sounded so fulfilling and laden with catchy, melodic hooks.
This realignment of garage rock pioneers feels well justified after progressive listens of “Let’s Go…”. It’s an album that could be used as an introductory piece to newcomers to GBV, and also for the old fashioned listener as that it doesn’t alienate its dedicate fan base. With a collection of chugging, dissonant music patches (Hang Mr. Kite, God Loves Us) sewn with single-like melodic pop songs (Chocolate Boy, The Unsinkable Fats Domino) it makes it as gratifying as any “reunion” album could be.
One never feels that this is some makeshift album made to promote a tacked on tour, as GBV already is planning another new LP this year. For the most part, the varied components all work here. In the standout track “God Loves Us”, Sprout declares amongst the hard-hitting rifts,“We are living proof that God loves us”. Bad blood couldn’t keep them apart, and their comeback proves that their is plenty of love for them to receive.
Recommended Tracks: God Loves Us, We Won’t Apologize for The Human Race, The Unsinkable Fats Domino
Radiate Reviews is a weekly music review column.
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