With the release of
Styles We Paid For,
Robert Pollard delivers an improbable second consecutive hat trick, capping off another banner year with
Guided by Voices' third LP of 2020. And why not? It's hard to imagine an artist better suited to capitalize on a year of enforced lockdown than
Pollard, especially when his productivity was already through the roof. That the indie rock titans already had enough quality material in the tank after 2019's bounty to trot out two more full-lengths during a global pandemic was an impressive feat, and
Styles We Paid For is no slouch of a record, especially given that it was completed in quarantine with the bandmembers trading files from their respective home studios. Originally envisioned as an entirely analog set called Before Computers,
Pollard and bandmates
Doug Gillard (guitar),
Bobby Bare, Jr. (guitar),
Mark Shue (bass), and
Kevin March (drums) gamely readjusted their approach to suit the times and continued their hot streak with another reliably solid latter-day release. From the mighty
Trump-baiting opener "Megaphone Riley" and multi-part indie prog suite "Endless Seafood" to the irresistibly hooky "Crash at Lake Placebo,"
GBV hit their marks again and again despite never setting eyes on each other during the process. The album's cohesion can be attributed in no small part to producer/mixing engineer
Travis Harrison, whose final assemblage sounds surprisingly organic and even spontaneous. Whatever face-to-face interplay the group missed out on, they more than make up for in interesting parts and lively takes. The wily "Liquid Kid," another multi-sectioned standout, surges into a thrilling conclusion, while dirgey closer "When Growing Was Simple" hammers out a scuzzy pulse over which
Pollard grumbles phrases about fourth grade, cleats, and staying home to eat. It's surprising that on
GBV's sixth album in two years, they would have anything more to say, but
Pollard's signature art form is abstract enough to play out like one unending algorithm of exciting word jumble peppered with zeitgeist-speak and occasional bursts of meaning. ~ Timothy Monger
