Cool Planet
Guided by Voices never seem to run out of ideas. Four months after 2014\'s *Motivational Jumpsuit*, the group have returned with *Cool Planet*. It was recorded during the coldest winter in years, with Robert Pollard working in a studio in Ohio and Tobin Sprout recording in his home studio in Wisconsin. Throw the results together, and you have an 18-track album that comes as close as any GBV album at distilling their essence. Songs such as “Table at Fool’s Tooth,” “Pan Swimmer,” “You Get Every Game,” “Bad Love Is Easy to Do,\" and “The No Doubters” feel like songs that were worked on as opposed to being the product of immediate gratification. This is often courtesy of drummer Kevin March, who gives the songs an extra tightness. Sprout certainly comes through with the piano-based “All American Boy,” “Narrated by Paul,\" and the acoustic “Ticket to Hide,” three of the album’s best songs. Why this album above many others? Apparently, Lady Luck was smiling down on the GBV boys this cycle. Either that or the band members really respond to polar vortexes.
A workmanlike quality—both charismatic and chilling—has grown since Guided by Voices reformed for their lackluster 2012 album Let’s Go Eat the Factory, and it’s carried over into their sixth comeback full-length, Cool Planet. The line between exhilarating and exasperating is still being straddled to the point where it's starting to chafe.
A workmanlike quality—both charismatic and chilling—has grown since Guided by Voices reformed for their lackluster 2012 album Let’s Go Eat the Factory, and it’s carried over into their sixth comeback full-length, Cool Planet. The line between exhilarating and exasperating is still being straddled to the point where it's starting to chafe.
Here they go again - the Dayton, Ohio band release their second LP of 2014. Bear in mind it's still only May.
Here they go again - the Dayton, Ohio band release their second LP of 2014. Bear in mind it's still only May.
The first and most important question with any new Guided by Voices record is how many of these songs deserve to wind up on…
The first and most important question with any new Guided by Voices record is how many of these songs deserve to wind up on…
Cool Planet qualifies as ample reason to give thanks for the continued reunion of one of indie rock’s most iconic bands.
Cool Planet qualifies as ample reason to give thanks for the continued reunion of one of indie rock’s most iconic bands.