Guided by Voices – How Do You Spell Heaven (2017)

Vinyl LP pressing. 2017 release from the uber-prolific Robert Pollard and his main day job, Guided By Voices. Guided by Voices is on a roll. One could argue that GBV is never not on a roll, that Robert Pollard's output plows past the word "prolific" like prolific is standing still in a snowbank; and that's true, but this new version of the band (Doug Gillard, Bobby Bare Jr, Mark Shue, Kevin March) has given Pollard new tools to complement his song-hammer. Thus, ergo, quod erat demonstrandum: roll. Hot on the heels of the smothered-in-plaudits double album August By Cake comes this hot and heavy fifteen-tune long player, a melody-dense thwack to the earholes that will both energize and deplete your body of it's remaining music-appreciation enzymes. Recorded by the band in New York, and by Pollard in Ohio, How Do You Spell Heaven capitalizes on the current incarnation's tour-buffed shine without sacrificing eternal verities such as but not limited to: off-kilter rhythmic jolts; krazy chords; purposefully imperfect harmonies; and fragmented structures that start and stop on a coin of small denomination and go somewhere else, and quickly. There's more, much more-the easiest, laziest way to sum up this latest album is the most obvious: How do you spell heaven? Shout it from the rafters: G-B-V!

TRACKLIST

01 – The Birthday Democrats
02 – King 007
03 – Boy W
04 – Steppenwolf Mausoleum
05 – Cretinous Number Ones
06 – They Fall Silent
07 – Diver Dan
08 – How To Murder A Man (In 3 Acts)
09 – Pearly Gates Smoke Machine
10 – Tenth Century
11 – How Do You Spell Heaven
12 – Paper Cutz
13 – Low Flying Perfection
14 – Nothing Gets You Real
15 – Just To Show You