Guided by Voices - Zeppelin Over China - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

The mighty Guided By Voices are set to unleash upon the world their 35th and quite possibly... best album, Crystal Nuns Cathedral. How do they do it you might ask? Well we have no idea how they do it, but we certainly do know why they do it. They do it because quite honestly we need them to do it. The world needs The Rock, and we need loud guitars, we need anthemic songs, we need a reason to raise a rock fist in the air and give a InchHell YeahInch! On Crystal Nuns Cathedral, the band delivers all of this and so much more. Just four months since It's Not Them. It Couldn't Be Them. It Is Them!, comes this latest, twelve songs determined to challenge for the title of greatest Guided by Voices album of all-time. Hyperbole you say? Not this time. The guitars are bigger, the arrangements are more ambitious, the songs are uplifting, epic, and as incredibly hook-laden as always! Pure power pop perfection like lead single InchExcited OnesInch mix perfectly with the slow burning InchClimbing A Ramp,Inch which reaches it's climax on a stunning guitar lead before dissolving into the fist pumping anthem InchNever Mind the List,Inch which serves as the beating heart of the entire album. Do you still need convincing? Listen to the one-two punch of InchForced to SeaInch and InchHuddledInch and marvel at the epic scope and vision of an incredible band on full display. This record is a statement, a challenge, a monument, a call to arms. Top this one if you can, this is the new benchmark. Who will best it? Who will try? Listen to Crystal Nuns Cathedral, and report back to us. We will be eagerly waiting.

This record is massive and amazing. Nowhere To Go But Up is Guided by Voices' third album of 2023 (and thirty-ninth overall) and is a sprawling, wild adventure. With virtually no choruses and just two repeated lyrics in forty minutes, GBV is audacious and unafraid. One of the most fully realized works that Guided by Voices has created, Nowhere To Go But Up showcases an expert rock band at the top of their game. The band is on a roll and unstoppable. Following their monumental 40th Anniversary Celebration in Dayton, Ohio, GBV begins their fifth decade with a bang!

When we last heard from Guided by Voices, they had released an astonishing four albums in just over 12 months. Each has a distinctive creative identity Zeppelin Over China was a meat-and-potatoes double album, Warp And Woof was a return to the band's low-fidelity roots and under-two-minute earworms, Sweating The Plague was a slice of moody stadium rock, and Surrender Your Poppy Field was an unpredictable grab-bag of all of the above. After venturing through the tangled brambles of Plague and Poppy Field, here is a sunny summer reprieve, a relentless barrage of hooks-Mirrored Aztec is the latest stop on this runaway train. Like it's immediate predecessors, Mirrored Aztec is both it's own entity and unmistakably GBV. It's also their most immediately welcoming and inviting offering in years-there's nothing a fan of The Who, Big Star, or Wire, wouldn't love. For the GBV uninitiated, the clean, confident hooks of highlights InchBunco Men,Inch InchHaircut Sphinx,Inch InchA Whale Is Top Notch,Inch InchParty Rages OnInch and the strummy InchTo Keep An AreaInch will resonate immediately. It also contains some unprecedented GBV moments, too, like InchMath Rock,Inch an apparent tribute to the titular subgenre featuring classroom instruments and a children's choir, InchPlease Don't Be Honest,Inch a dreamy reversal of the band's 2016 song and album Please Be Honest, and InchThank You Jane,Inch perhaps the most open-hearted, guileless power-pop song from Pollard's pen in ages.If Pollard's discography-107 albums and counting-seems intimidating, do not fear! With a brand-new, high-quality, all-the-way-there album every several months, it's abundantly clear that no band's fanbase has more fun.