Guided by Voices Universal Truths and Cycles

[Matador; 2002]

Styles: indie rock, lo-fi
Others: Robert Pollard, Pavement, Bob Mould, Cheap Trick


If you haven't heard a Guided by Voices album in some time, then I highly recommend Isolation Drills (2001), the second GBV outing with major label TVT Records. Prepare yourself for something startling, however, for the band on that release is a strong, forceful power pop outfit with burnished flags flying high. There is very little fuzz, and not a single registered cough caught on tape. Also, the songs on that album are fairly grim, as divorce or something like it finally caught up with Bob Pollard and brought his brilliant imagination down to hard earth. Isolation Drills exposed not just a great rock band, but a band exploring crisper forms and painful melancholy. Isolation Drills qualifies with 1997s Mag Earwig (Matador) and the twin polestars of indie rock magnificence, Bee Thousand (1994, Scat Records) and Alien Lanes (1995, Matador). If you've been exposed to Isolation Drills, then come along and sample Universal Truths and Cycles. The band has come home to roost with Matador Records, and advance press describes this new LP as the marriage of Alien Lanes and Isolation Drills. This sounds like a desirable union, but the new LP lacks the one thing those albums shared: absolute confidence. That being said, Universal Truths and Cycles is rammed full of imagination, harmony, and energy. It just lacks the impeccable artistic voice and concision of its predecessor.

With the arrival of this new and eclectic album, Guided by Voices has delivered a fine collection of songs for summer bonfires, rope swings and other great beer sports. Universal Truths and Cycles holds 4-star singles like "Everywhere with Helicopter" and "Back to the Lake," and these are backed up with the giddy ephemera of "The Ids Are Alright" and "Wire Greyhounds." Pollard is an artist with prolific abilities, and in the past it seemed that whatever product the man delivered, he invariably hit the mark with awesome songs of roughly- hewn brit-pop and folk-metal. A pattern seems to have set in, however, and the quality of his records depends more than ever on his ability to harness his editorial skills and deliver first-rate music. If Pollard doesn't have anyone in his stable whom he can depend on for sharp criticism, then hell suffer the fate of the genius surrounded by yes-men. Evidence of this first appeared on Do the Collapse (2000), the first TVT-issued LP, infamously produced in a beer-free environment by Ric Ocasek. A smart combination of talents was sunk from the start by a song-stable of poor GBV-imitations. Pablo Picasso said it: one should always imitate but never imitate oneself, and the maxim is proved true when artists of such voluminous productivity as Bob Pollard enter the realm of self-parody.

And yet, I wonder how you could pen thousands of songs as Pollard has in the space of 10 years, and not begin to sound like mere regurgitation of oneself? Pollard answers such questions with dexterity and invention on "Cheyenne," which proves the first highlight on Universal Truths. As beautiful a GBV cut as you've ever heard, "Cheyenne" is a sermon on the form and craft of elocution in song. Pollard wraps his vocal chords around the title and song-chorus: "Chey- ey- enne!!!" flipping the word open and tossing the melody up and away. This is discovery, not invention, and you can hear the man as he witnesses it. Unpretentious power inhabits the best of the cuts on this new LP. For the most part, the new platter succeeds in avoiding the pitfalls that beset the group throughout Do the Collapse.

Pollard hasn't fallen into that pit of self-imitation very often, and Universal Truths and Cycles clearly basks in the notion that great art is a cyclical and living thing. Echoes of of the past can just as often be rewarding rather than dull. Even so, it is not with the familiar GBV experimentation of yore that this record really pleases. No, it is when Guided by Voices pumps out red-blooded rock songs that Universal Truths makes the case for some sort of rock and roll reincarnation. Nostalgia has always been central to the Guided by Voices mission, but if they sink into a morass of wistful self- elegy, their spark will quickly fade.

The burnished production of Isolation Drills lingers on Universal Truths, but it feels like the cloak without the britches. Pollard and company deliver the hot licks and respectable percussion that are required, but the "experimental" moments seem to be carted out without purpose. There's a touch of string arrangements, but nothing like the expertly woven stuff on the last outing. If its not meant to be there, then leave it behind, or put it out on a Rockathon spin-off.

Bob Pollard is, if not the insane incarnation of Paul McCartney, then the sane ghost of Captain Beefheart. He couldn't have been invented in the dreams of a thousand restless teenagers. Bee Thousand and Alien Lanes were shocking testaments to anarchic discovery and poetry. Subsequent albums and side-projects explored what remained of this territory. After two decades of search and destroy, on the hunt for an audience with the very essence of the creative spark, Bob Pollard seemed to have arrived at the mighty rock of Isolation Drills. This was not a record about music, about pop, or about the fleeting flame of idea. Isolation Drills is a pop rock LP virtually free of questions. This Album marked the groups arrival. As a follow up, Universal Truths and Cycles is eminently
pleasurable and rewarding. It is perhaps the first new effort on an expedition that finally reached the Pacific Ocean. The men woke up the next morning and found a little canoe. Oh well, here goes... 1. Wire Greyhounds
2. Skin Parade
3. Zap
4. Christian Animation Torch Carriers
5. Cheyenne
6. The Weeping Bogeyman
7. Back to the Lake
8. Love 1
9. Storm Vibrations
10. Factory of Raw Essentials
11. Everywhere With Helicopter
12. Pretty Bombs
13. Eureka Signs
14. Wings of Thorn
15. Car Language
16. From a Voice Plantation
17. The Ids are Alright
18. Universal Truths and Cycles
19. Father Sgt. Christmas Card

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