For those of you out there -- and I know there's a few of you! -- who thought the last epic-length Guided By Voices album, Zeppelin Over China, was a bit of a messy record, you'll be thrilled to hear that Warp And Woof, out this Friday via Rockathon Records, is an altogether different kind of beast. Where Zeppelin Over China was sprawling and expansive, a fact I readily acknowledged in my review of it last January, Warp And Woof is tight and punchy, sometimes gloriously so.
And, yes, while a few of the tunes from the band's pair of EP's from last fall show up again, there's loads more brand new stuff to enjoy here on the 24-track Warp And Woof. From the Led Zep-flash of "Dead Liquor Store", to the jerky New Wave of the sublime "Angelic Weirdness", Robert Pollard is clearly more interested in being concise this time around, with ideas and chord changes flying in each cut at a near-breakneck pace. "Photo Range Within", for example, is a really bright bit of business, one that sits very nicely next to the still-superb "Cohesive Scoops", a fine holdover from last year. Elsewhere, "Blue Jay House" sees Pollard bring a near-Wire-like approach to this sort of material, while the excellent "My Angel" is, perhaps, one of the very best tracks he's penned since "Motor Away" way back when. It's so direct, simple, and full of vigor that long-time fans will be thrilled, and new ones will be further enraptured.
Still, even though Warp And Woof is 24 tracks in 36 minutes, an indication that Pollard is visiting his Nineties muse, the record finds some space for riskier material towards the end of its brief running time. Thankfully the lovely "It Will Never Be Simple Again" is here again to guide a listener into the more spacious patch of this record, with "The Stars Behind Us" featuring some slide guitar, and "Time Remains in Central Position" using a deliberately-paced climbing melodic figure to great effect. And just as he ended August By Cake with the cacophonous "Escape To Phoenix", a Who-like maelstrom, Robert Pollard wisely closes out Warp And Woof with another similar rocker in "End It With Light", Kevin March doing his best Moon on this one too.
Warp And Woof is a sort of throwback record for Guided By Voices. It's as combative as Alien Lanes in spots, and rarely (if ever) anything less than fantastic. Warp And Woof mostly roars, lo-fi power-pop oozing out of its joints, even as Guided By Voices give out rich melodic passages here like candy.
Warp And Woof is out on Friday via Rockathon Records.
More details on Guided By Voices via the band's official website.
If you want to know about Robert Pollard's artwork that's for sale, go to RobertPollardArt.com.
[Photo: me, 2018, D.C.]