January 13, 2012
Their finest work since ‘Isolation Drills’
8 / 10
This is unmistakably a Guided By Voices record. Twenty-one hard-bitten, melody-powered scuzz missiles fired at whim with nary a thought given to what it is exactly they’re volleying into the ether. It was recorded by the reconvened class of ’93-’96, and the men behind ‘Bee Thousand’ have done it again: made a glorious, frayed-at-the-edges patchwork of bristling garage pop (‘God Loves Us’, ‘The Unsinkable Fats Domino’), stadium rock racketeering (‘Imperial Racehorsing’), saloon-bar tenderness (‘Doughnut For A Snowman’), and nightmarishly ramshackle dirges constructed from shoddy time-keeping and distortion alone. It’s also Guided By Voices’ finest work since 2001’s ‘Isolation Drills’.
Chris Parkin
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"The reformed "classic-era" GBV have produced an album with the collagist careen of Bee Thousand and Propeller and but it ultimately comes up short in the songs department. The best moments come courtesy of Tobin Sprout."
"The beyond-prolific Guided by Voices frontman's first solo LP since January's Let's Go Eat the Factory was recorded with an emphasis on wordplay."
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