Guided By Voices- La La Land (1/20)

I overuse often make the joke that if we ever go more than 8-9 months without a new GBV record, something is seriously wrong. Luckily, Bob Pollard is still in fine form, churning out records at a breakneck pace.

Last year’s Tremblers and Goggles By Rank made a lot of year-end lists (including mine) and contained five and six-minute songs, new ground for a band used to cranking out sub- 2:00 minute tracks. According to Pollard, La La Land is that record’s direct follow-up. And like its predecessor, it shows him going deeper, again writing (relatively) longer tracks and a more sophisticated sound.

Forty years in, Pollard-and GBV- have nothing left to prove. They could probably coast and release iterations of Alien Lanes, and we’d all eat it up. But they don’t, and the world’s a better place because of it.