Graham Reid | | 1 min read
Pub quiz question: what American rock band formed in 1983 have released almost as many albums as Bob Dylan whose career started more than 20 years before them?
Yes, let's raise our glasses to Ohio's Guided by Voice who here clock up their 38th studio album (Bob at 40 with his recent Shadow Kingdom), and their second this year.
Not bad for a band which has had two hiatuses, label-hopped for decades and enjoyed a passing parade of a score of members around singer-songwriter Robert Pollard (who has also released almost two dozen albums under his own name and almost as many under other monikers).
You'd presume some attrition of quality after all this time but Welshpool Frillies is – at least for longtime GbV followers – as good as anything in their catalogue offering fuzzed up alt.rock, smidgens of power pop, catchy riffs and hooks and Pollard's sometimes bewilderingly but enjoyably weird lyrics on songs with titles like Meet the Star, Romeo Surgeon, Animal Concentrate, Don't Blow Your Dream Job, Radioactive Pigeons . . .
Sometimes sounding like posh early Seventies Bowie (check Cats on Heat), Pollard hear sounds as inspired, enthusiastic and slightly desperate (Mother Mirth) as he ever was.
To be fair though, if you've assiduously followed GbV you'll just enjoy hearing more of what you love (there's no “hope you like our new direction” here) and if they managed to go past you, you could start here to discover a band who might just win you a round at the pub quiz.
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You can hear and buy this album at bandcamp here
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