Produced by Travis Harrison, the 17-track album follows on the heels of this summer’s “Strut of Kings,” and a trio of albums from 2023: “La La Land,” “Welshpool Frillies” and “Nowhere to Go but Up.”
“I wanted to create, hopefully, an experience, kind of a wild ride, where the listener would want to hear it multiple times in order to grasp all the sections and fields of sound to discover something new with each listen,” bandleader Robert Pollard told Rolling Stone. “I trimmed down the songs so that there wasn’t a lot of repetition, so you get a lot of sections that happen only once or twice.”
The first single off the album “Fly Religion” is out now. It features stabbing — sometimes dissonant — guitar riffs mirroring thumping drums, all woven together with Pollard’s aphoristic lyrics that will surely turn anthemic at future shows.
“Fly Religion” is a taste of what’s to come: it’s biting, it’s new-wave — a pure planetary addition to the GBV universe.
“I wanted to get a little more sonic diversity for this album,” said Pollard, “so I asked each member of the band to record all the instruments for one song and I did three songs myself. For the rest of the songs, we used a lot of different approaches to the recording of both the instruments and the vocals.”
“Universe Room” is the band’s 18th album in 10 years, and features the longest-lasting lineup of GBV, with Pollard, Doug Gillard, Kevin March, Mark Shue and Bobby Bare Jr. at the helm.
According to Rockathon Records, the new album packs “a vast mix of energy levels and previously undiscovered constellations of sounds into 17 diverse tracks over a compact space of less than 40 minutes.”
The universe is ever-expanding, which may be inconceivable to the human eye, but we can ostensibly hear the proof in the new Guided by Voices record. The band is not only prolific, but continues to sharpen the apex of what indie rock can achieve.
The stars of the “Universe Room” have aligned; Robert Pollard and crew have cosmically delivered once again.
Guided By Voices currently has no live dates scheduled.
Brandon Berry writes about the local music scene in Dayton and Southwest Ohio. Have a story idea for him? Email branberry100@gmail.com.
MORE DETAILS
Pre-order the LP/CD of Guided By Voices new album “Universe Room” from Rockathon Records at rockathonrecords.com/guided-by-voices
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