Guided By Voices - 'Earthquake Glue' (Matador)
4/5
By: Thomas Hannan
In their 14-album career, Guided By Voices have spent a lot of time trying to bang the nail on the head; a couple of times, they've got it right ('Bee Thousand', 'Mag Earwhig!' and 'Isolation Drills'), but they're also guilty of getting some pretty sore thumbs through missing the target... With 'Earthquake Glue' though, they've finally got their direct hit.
But it'll take time to realise just how spot-on they've come with this one. On initial listen, there's plenty to enjoy, but little that really infests the soul. There is, however, some fun to be found in the vast array of noise that's generously splattered over 'Earthquake Weather' - each track with a melody trying to escape from underneath a blanket of reverb-thuds, feedback-drones and gyrating guitar-crashes... It's more pleasurable than that sounds, but even those fond of the most coarse of tones will be expecting a little more in the way of melody from Guided By Voices. Where, exactly, are the tunes?
Well, patient listener, lift up that aforementioned blanket and you'll find that every one of the 15 tracks has a mighty, individual jingle of its own. 'Earthquake Glue' is the very definition of the term 'a grower', slightly underwhelming at first but beautifully compelling once allowed to unfold. It's testimonial that someone such as Robert Pollard, main-man behind the GBV outfit and writer of some 3,000 songs in his career, can still churn out pop songs to rival any/everyone ('The Best of Jill Hives') and rock as hard as any self-respecting indie band would dare (the Pavement-like abrasive brilliance of 'I'll Replace You With Machines'). Try and forget the fact that you weren't so impressed by these songs when you first heard them. It's a feeling that will only fill you with deep embarrassment.
For Guided By Voices, with age comes all the more edge to their sound. Beating at their heart is a pop band (remember 'Teenage FBI' anyone?), and it's still very much a part of them, but it's almost as if they're using this as an auxiliary skill now, such is the confrontational nature of much of the record. The hard-hitting 'tude is actually something that suits them astoundingly well, sitting there amongst the album's very highest peaks, the brilliant guitar-spasms of 'Dead Cloud' and a closing 'Of Mites And Men'. The approach also adds some necessary bite when they do decide to come close to straight-up chipper-numbers (refer to highly-charged opening-track and current single 'My Kind Of Soldier').
It slows down (the brass-laden, almost funeral march of 'My Son, My Secretary and My Country') then speeds up, gets happy ('Useless Inventions'), then sad and contemplative (the beautiful 'Beat Your Wings') all without ever losing any grip on what makes 'Earthquake Glue' such an enjoyable listen. It's full of such joyous variety and humbling pride in its own existence that eventually, you're bound to become bewitched. You'll just be left wishing you cottoned on sooner.
Artists in this article: Guided By Voices
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