Guided By Voices - "How Do You Spell Heaven"

Ever since I was in high school, Guided By Voices has been one of the most important bands in the world to me.  These highly prolific gentlemen got started in 1987 with "Devil Between My Toes".  Overall, this album is seriously messy.  Singer and Lyricist Robert Pollard didn't have nearly as many good ideas, and the grimy sort of Post-Punk instrumentals that followed weren't really that much better.  However, there WAS a whole lot of really shining moments that foreshadowed the greatness that would come from GBV.  For example, tracks like "A Portrait Destroyed By Fire" were the sort of epic over the top jam that would rule albums like "Propeller", while tracks like "Hey Hey, Spaceman" and "Dog's Out" were catchy and retro sounding enough to please any GBV fan.  GBV though quickly started picking up the pace with 1987's "Sandbox".  This album wasn't lyrically perfect, but showed the band in a much more wild light.  The songs were energetic, and began to reflect Robert Pollard's appreciation for 60's British Invasion bands.  But GBV still had a ways to go, as they prove on 1989's "Self-Inflicted Aerial Nostalgia".  This album had some great moments like "Short On Posters" and "An Earful O' Wax".  But most of the rest of the album showed the band and Robert Pollard at a serious disconnect.  By 1990 though, GBV were clearly starting to get rolling with the release of "Same Place The Fly Got Smashed".  This was a seriously harsh, dark, and much heavier album as a whole for GBV.   But it was seriously well done, with catchy tracks like "Pendulum" and much more longer and intense "Local Mix-Up/Murder Charge".  Even Robert Pollard's lyrics were taking shape nicely.  What GBV needed now was an album that they could start to finish be remembered by.  And that's exactly what they made in 1992.  "Propeller" is Guided By Voices truly fantastic album.  It's just such a seriously cohesive album.  From start to finish there are barely any weak spots.  I love just how chaotic all of the instrumentals seemed to come off, with Pollard's very catchy pop hooks keeping things together just enough.  But oh BOY, did GBV still have some kinks to iron out.  1993's "Vampire on Titus" was a mess from start to finish.  I'm all for gritty, Low-Fi rock.  But this album just sounded awful to be honest.  There wasn't a single track on here that I found to be nearly as compelling as anything else they had done recently.  Guided By Voices now needed to make an album that would stand the test of time, a truly stunning work.  The band got that with 1994's "Bee Thousand".  This album from start to finish is nearly perfect.  It showed the band instrumentally all on the same page, creating catchy retro tinged tracks like the far out "Hot Freaks" and my personal favorite "Echoes Myron".  But it also showed Robert Pollard to be maturing into a thinking man's songwriter, namely on the flawless "I Am A Scientist".  In 1995, GBV dropped another stone cold classic with the much longer but just as concise "Alien Lanes".  This album showed the band working with a much grander set of tunes, like the huge "Motor Away" and the classic "Game Of Pricks".  But most importantly, it showed that Guided By Voices could very easily fit 28 songs on a 40 minute album, and not have it all come off like a compilation of sorts.  By the time 1996's "Under The Bushes Under The Stars" came out, Guided By Voices clearly had a their formula down to a science.  This album was 56 minutes long, their longest yet by far.   However, this album came off just as seamless, catchy, and intriguing of an album, with a seriously low amount of flops.  But when it came to 1996's "Tonics And Twisted Chasers"...what the hell happened?  This album was muddy as hell, and not even in a Guided By Voices way, it just sounded thrown together.  There were great tracks like "Top Chick Silver Chord" and "Dayton, Ohio/19 Something & 5".  But the amount of truly forgettable, poorly produced tracks was overwhelming.  However, Guided By Voices bounced back with one of their best records to date, "Mag Earwhig!".  This album was one of the most consistent, catchy, and instrumentally powerful GBV had tackled to date.  From amazing fan favorites like "Bulldog Skin" to criminally underrated deep cuts like "Jane of The Waking Universe", this album seriously had a little something for everyone.  Then we have 1999's "Do The Collapse", an album that quite frankly a lot of people try to forget.  It's a messy album for a whole different reason.  On here, Guided By Voices decided to clean up their production and brought in The Cars' Ric Ocasek to help.  The result was just so clean and shiny, it barely sounded like Guided By Voices at all.  But on top of that, Robert Pollard's lyrics just seemed exhausted.  For the most part, this album sounded like a newer indie band trying desperately to sound like Guided By Voices.  Now, when we get into the 2000's of Guided By Voices, things get a little weird.  2002's "Universal Truths and Cycles" was fine and all, with great tracks like "Cheyenne" and "Everywhere With Helicopter".  But other tracks on here seemed on the bland side.  There was nothing actually wrong with a lot of these tracks, but there wasn't anything very memorable either.    But then we have 2003's brilliant "Earthquake Glue", which had Guided By Voices sounding more focused than they had in years.  Tracks like "She Goes Off At Night" and "The Main Street Wizards" just sound so huge, and "The Best of Jill Hives" is one of my all time favorite GBV tunes.  By the time we get to 2004's "Half Smiles of The Decomposed", GBV was really starting to sound lifeless.  Robert Pollard's lyrics here seemed so directionless and bland.  Not to mention, the instrumentals on this were just so boring and toothless, even for the band's usual Low-Fi style.  But there were still a few moments on here, like "Huffman Prairie Flying Field" and "Closets of Henry" which showed us that Robert Pollard was far from done with us. It would be 7 years until we heard from GBV again.  2011's comeback album "Let's Go Eat The Factory" had a lot of great things going on, but also a lot of iffy material.  For example, I love the return of the original lineup as well as the more Low-Fi production.  But lyrically and structure wise, a lot of this album came of as incomplete.  However, 2012's "Class Clown Spots a UFO" I actually enjoyed quite a bit.  I'm not saying this was completely old school GBV.  But this was the band seriously having fun, and making the music they wanted too, and it sounded pretty damn solid.  Even 2012's "The Bears for Lunch" was pretty damn impressive.  Once again, I wouldn't say this was a rebirth, but for a band over 20 album's in, this was far from bad.  2013's "English Little League" on the other hand, was absolutely awful.  I feel like there were just too many shallow aspects to this albums, like an overly hazy atmosphere.  It just seemed to me like GBV were trying way too hard once again.  So if you haven't realized, the 2000's have been a back and forth struggle for Guided By Voices. This continued with "Motivational Jumpsuit" in 2014, which was strangely crunchy and heavy sounding.  Once again, GBV really didn't seem like they had anything to prove.But because this is the 2010's Guided By Voices couldn't stay on track.  2014's "Cool Planet" might be their worst album.  While early tracks like "Authoritarian Zoo" were great, almost every track after that was seriously painfully bland and seriously questionable.  Not to mention, Robert Pollard just sounded bored.  And let's not even talk about 2016's "Please Be Honest".  So to be honest, at this point in Guided By Voices' career, the last thing I wanted to hear was a DOUBLE ALBUM.  But that's exactly what we got with "August By Cake" earlier this year.  I'll be honest though, this album was actually pretty great, with really solid singles like "Overloaded and "Absent The Man" that once again showed Guided By Voices to be pretty damn rejuvenated.  And then we have this this new single from GBV.  And to be honest, I dunno,  it's alright?  Like not bad, but certainly nothing to write home about either.  So that being said, it's taken me 2 months to prepare for this album.  So let's talk about this thing finally, shall we?

(One of any reasons why GBV means the world to me)

This album starts off with “The Birthday Democrats”, and it’s a pretty standard intro from GBV.  But to be honest, it actually in more ways than one comes off as a much older GBV song.  From the very crunchy instrumentals to the very melodic vocals, which recently haven’t been nearly as focused on, are on display here in a big way.  Lyrically, of course we have a lot of the same elements that Pollard’s been working with us for years.  But that’s not bad at all, and I can’t help but get excited over lines like “Your dream is a dust speck in your eye”.  A lot of “The Birthday Democrats” just comes off really refreshing, to be honest.  It even has a sort of bizarre, off kilter finale that will have you craving some more.  It’s a great start from Guided By Voices.  Then we have “King 007”, which is totally different for GBV.  It’s not nearly as scratchy or as Low-Fi, it’s actually very elegant and clean sounding.  But it’s not enough to sound like Guided By Voices are a little too far from their roots.  Robert Pollard sounds actually right at home among this sort of disjointed riff.  When things pick up into a much more explosive track on “King 007”, this easily comes off as powerful and forward thinking as some of the tracks on the legendary “Mag Earwhig!” or “Isolation Drills”.  Most importantly though, it still contains that great, legendary Guided By Voices mysticism amongst all of these solos and breakdowns.  “Boy W” however brings the boys of Guided By Voices into some new territory.  This one is so much more stiff sounding and almost robotic, to the point where this almost sounds like some Proto-Punk.  But Pollard’s very rigid performance on this one actually makes “Boy W” almost danceable.  It’s certainly new ground for Guided By Voices, but it works actually really wonderful, you’d think they had been doing this for years.  Instrumentally this continues to be solid, but I think the real story is just how incredibly youthful this album sounds so far.  I’m not sure how they got this music to sound so youthful, to be honest, but it’s great to hear.  Then we have tracks like “Steppenwolf Mausoleum”, which is a whole lot more somber and dark sounding.  It’s a sound that we’re going to be hearing a whole lot more of as this album goes on, so you better get used to it.  Now, as far as an emotional tune goes from Robert Pollard and GBV, I can’t remember the last time I heard such a deep tune.  Between the chugging riff and the very explosive verses, this one is just massive.  “Steppenwolf Mausoleum” is sluggish, and far from the once vibrant and upbeat Low-Fi Jangle Pop that GBV used to dish out.  But this one hit you really hard, and up to this point, I’m impressed with just how many risks the band is taking here.  Guided By Voices, however, starts to slip up with “Cretinous Number Ones”.  Instrumentally this track is just as crunchy and classic sounding for Guided By Voices.  Some of the later moments, when it picks up for the chorus are actually magnificent, and some of those handclaps were a great little detail boys.  Sadly though, I’m not nearly as into Pollard’s performance here.  Lyrically, he brought his A-Game clearly, because I’m still scratching my head in a way only Pollard can do.  But vocally, he just sounds so we are here and so unbelievably down and out.  And to be honest, I’m not really sure where that’s coming from.  So I’m torn on this one, because all of that being said, it’s also easily the catchiest tune here.  Meh.

https://youtu.be/BnysNKHf0lg

    This album rumbles on with “They Fall Silent”, and I continue to seriously be on the fence with Pollard’s deeper register vocals.  And ugh, that’s such a damn shame because lyrically we’re getting into some truly deep, personal and dark territory.  Instrumentally, it’s so bare and lonely sounding.  With Pollard busting out these much more personal lyrics, I really wish I could be into his deeper vocals.  “Diver Dan” on the other hand, continues with Pollard’s more deeply delivered vocals.  However, amongst this much more fleshed out instrumental and more upbeat atmosphere it comes off so much more enjoyable.  This one is really snappy, with the band sounding seriously unified here.  Not only that though, it’s got the sort of Jangly hopefulness that I’ve always loved about GBV.  Not to mention, “Diver Dan” has such a great energy overall.  But this upbeat nature doesn’t last long sadly.  “How To Murder a Man (In 3 Acts) is up next, and I seriously wish I could be into this.  Pollard’s performance here is once again more emotional and incredibly heartfelt.  And when you add in these much more somber toned instrumentals, you have a pretty heavy piece.  But I seriously just can’t get into these performances.  However, there’s a whole lot about this track that I do like.  For example, some of these instrumentals are actually really intense.  And lyrically, I do have to say it’s nice to be able to read into Pollard’s lyrics a little bit more.  Overall though, I just can’t get into these much more dreary performances, it just sucks the life right out of me.  Then we have “Pearly Gates Smoke Machine”, which is once again a little slower paced.  But the guitars are right back to being nice and crunchy and a whole lot more interesting.  This one actually has a whole lot of great pacing to it and shows Guided by really working well with creating an atmosphere.  For a four minute instrumental, “Pearly Gates Smoke Machine” is actually really impressive.  The solos are great, the pacing continues to be spot on, and I love how sonic this all comes off.   It’s massive, it’s explosive, and most importantly, it’s one of the nicer surprises I’ve heard here.  But then they have to follow that up with something like “Tenth Century” for some reason.  Once again, lyrically I feel like I totally get this, almost a little too much for a Robert Pollard penned tune.  Hell, the instrumental once again even comes off as sort of mystifying and old school for the band.  But once again, I’m really not into Pollard’s vocals once again, mostly because of just how tired and dreary he comes off sounding.  I continue to enjoy a lot of the instrumentals as “Tenth Century” goes on, but man do I ever wish these vocals did more for me.

    The album continues with its title track “How Do You Spell Heaven”.  Now, from this intro, this really isn’t hitting me too hard at all.  But as the instrumentals pop in around Pollard’s performance, everything gets pretty smooth.  Now, this is a real exception as far as Pollard’s more somber material goes.  On this one, it actually comes off really nicely on all cylinders.  This one from start to finish comes off truly sentimental, but still has a whole lot of the same vibes we’ve gotten from Guided By Voices for years.  And while I wish maybe it was a little rougher sounding and a bit more upbeat, this one is seriously decent.  But then we have “Paper Cutz”, which sounds decent enough to be a straight up classic Guided By Voices tune.  The instrumental here is straightforward enough, with just the right amount of roughness.  But at this point in the album though, there really isn’t that much more I can say about “Paper Cutz”, and that’s not a bad thing.  Robert Pollard sounds great, the writing is spot on, and overall I’m seriously into this.  Guided By Voices, however, in their old age have gotten a whole lot less consistent.  Tracks like “Low Flying Perfection” honestly confuse the hell out of me.  In the past, Guided By Voices have done plenty of more low key and quieter tracks.  But this track just sounds completely outdated to me, and once again it sounds like Guided By Voices are trying way too hard to be themselves again.  Even lyrically, “Low Flying Perfection” comes off as some cheap imitation of what made Guided By Voices sound so different back in the day.  Instrumentally, it’s bland.  Vocally, it’s weak.  And lyrically, it’s not nearly as impressive as it could have been.  Then we have “Nothing Gets You Real”.  Now, while this isn’t the most stunning and perfect track here, at the very least this sounds like Guided By Voices being themselves and not playing to any gimmicks.  Pollard may sound a little shaky from time to time.  But the smooth atmosphere and straightforward instrumentals really make this one work well. In a lot of ways, some of Guided By Voice’s more recent albums have shown them branching out into a more mainstream sound, and I feel like this is what they were going for.  “Nothing Gets You Real” is a solid tune ladies and gentlemen.  This album ends off however on a really bizarre note.  “Just To Show You” honestly, is bland from start to finish.  The fact that this was the one track they released from the album early made this album really hard to get excited for.  It’s not bad, it’s just so painfully OK.  And to end off the entire album with this track boy?  Not good, not good at all.

Rating: 7.6/10

Give A Listen To: “The Birthday Democrats”, “King 007”, “Steppenwolf Mausoleum”, “Diver Dan”

Overall Thoughts: I mean, what the hell else can I even say about Guided By Voices on their 26th album.  This album here isn't inventing any wheels as far as the band's sound goes, and for the most part, it's business as usual.  However, this album is certainly one of the better of their recent string of new albums.  But it also contains some of Robert Pollard's most personal material ever, which to some extent is a real treat.  I just sort of wish that some of his vocals were a little more concrete in areas.  Overall, this is still pretty decent.