Guided By Voices - La La Land (2023)

La La Land doubles down on the intricate proggy-pop displayed on Guided By Voices’s last album Tremblers And Goggles By Rank. On a hot streak of critical acclaim, Robert Pollard continues expanding his songwriting towards extremes of prettiness, heaviness and poeticism. As always, unforgettable hooks are everywhere. But with thsi latest, it seems Pollard is playing with the extremes of his abilities as a songwriter, emboldened by the power of this lineup now on their fourteenth album together since 2017. The prettiest stuff is prettier than ever (“Queen Of Spaces”) and odder, more complex songs like “Slowly On The Wheel” combine minimalism, whimsy, and cinematic inclinations. There are the exquisite power pop bangers that fans come to expect like “Ballroom Etiquette” and “Pockets.” Tracks like “Instinct Dwelling” and “Caution Song” effortlessly display a cranked-up weight and complexity most bands could never muster. Celebrating forty years in 2023 with their thirty-eighth album, GBV has lately been garnering rave reviews from Rolling Stone, Stereogum, Brooklyn Vegan, Uncut, MOJO, Shindig, Paste, Popmatters, The Quietus and many more.

Not many rock bands are still exploring new ideas after their 30th album, but Guided by Voices are not like many other bands. Though the lineup of GbV present on 2022's prog rock-meets-power pop outing Tremblers and Goggles by Rank had only been together since 2017, the album was their 13th release in that short time, with the unmistakable vocals and crooked hooks of founding member Robert Pollard steering the songs down new, weird paths. La La Land is a continuation of Tremblers and Goggles by Rank's expansive construction, moving further away from the patented short, sharp pop that GbV made their name on in the '90s and opting for relatively longer song lengths, more complex song structures, and a generally more angular side of the band. Where the last album jumped right into towering prog rock, La La Land takes a little longer to get there. Opener "Another Day to Heal" is a driving banger, made up of crunchy drums and huge power chords and flying by in under two minutes. Pollard applies his mystical melodic style to the jangly sway of "Released into Dementia" and the Beatles-informed harmonies of "Ballroom Etiquette" before blasting off into unknown dimensions with more intricately designed tracks like "Instinct Dwelling." Moments like the winding, six-minute epic "Slowly on the Wheel" or ominous intro of "Wild Kingdom" aren't quite like anything GbV has attempted before, which is saying something for a band with hundreds and hundreds of songs in their catalog. La La Land strikes a nice balance between more adventurous experiments with new styles and tunes like "Caution Song" and tracks such as the starkly beautiful "Queen of Spaces" that call on the fractured pop brilliance of the group's best-known earlier material. La La Land captures the incredibly rare state of a band still sounding fresh and curious on their 37th LP, and shows no indication of Pollard and co. stopping anytime soon.

1. Another Day to Heal (1:49)
2. Released into Dementia (2:19)
3. Ballroom Etiquette (2:48)
4. Instinct Dwelling (2:47)
5. Queen of Spaces (3:01)
6. Slowly on the Wheel (6:00)
7. Cousin Jackie (4:02)
8. Wild Kingdom (3:21)
9. Caution Song (2:18)
10. Face Eraser (2:51)
11. Pockets (3:48)