Guided By Voices – Strut Of Kings (2024) [FLAC 24bit/48kHz]

Guided By Voices – Strut Of Kings (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 35:44 minutes | 448 MB | Genre: Alternative Rock, Garage Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © GBV Inc

Building on forty years years of GBV history, the majestic and triumphant Strut Of Kings is the forty-first album by indie rock royalty Guided By Voices. Largely recorded in Kings County, New York (Brooklyn), the album is perhaps a gesture towards the malevolent “kings” on the world stage. As the “Serene King” waltzes across the battlefield, Emperor Pollard evokes castles, King Kong and strutting roosters, a surreal yet regal journey.In 2023, Guided by Voices—a.k.a. Robert Pollard and a revolving door of some 35 other members over the decades—celebrated the band’s 40th anniversary by releasing three albums (though it wasn’t the first time they had that kind of annual output). A year later, they are limiting themselves to one, but it’s a winner. It’s also a rocker. These are fleshed-out songs, not the sketches and germs that can populate quick-turnaround GBV albums, going back to the band’s hyper-short song period in the ’90s. Strut of Kings, the band’s 40th album (it’s possible one or two more slipped through the cracks of that discography) has a loosely overarching theme of kingdoms and mythology. “Show Me the Castle” starts off ceremonial if a bit plodding—a sonic battalion de marche—before it kicks in like a monster roaring to life. This is a great approximation of late ’60s The Who, a longtime seminal GBV influence, with absolutely crashing drums and needling guitar. “Olympus Cock in Radiana” rips a badass guitar riff over rumbling bass, à la Mountain, then melts into a heavy slab of doomy, reverberating prog rock. Pollard intones “Olympus cock in radiana/ Struts the strut of kings”—the first line almost sounding like Latin—before it’s capped off by a bell-like ring. “Serene King” starts off borrowing an old military and soccer singalong: “Everywhere I go, people wanna know/ Who I am, so I tell them.”

Pollard has said the cheerleaders at his high school also chanted it, calling it “catchy and probably one of the top all time public domain bits.” The song is power-pop crunch with muscular drums and riffage. Even when not literally singing about kings, Pollard & Co. summon gravitas. “Leaving Umbrella,” a slow-turning ship of a song, is the heavy metal of iron, not flashy copper or gold. “Caveman Running Naked” continues the bottom-heavy, thunder god mood but with a little more swagger and snatches of vibrant guitar levity. As always, there are Lennon- McCartney-esque touches, as in the DNA of the acoustic, lo-fi ballad “This Will Go On” and in the melody of “Fictional Environment Dream.” “Bicycle Garden” leans toward glam and boasts a horns vs. guitar dance-off. And melancholy “Bit of a Crunch” finds Pollard, 66, dragging out syllables with what sounds like consternated desperation (“Immortality knows time and boredom/ Better than a vanishing man”), joined by a woodpecker echo of percussion and, eventually, sweeping strings. It’s pretty lovely and moving and incredibly human—and coming in at 4:42 minutes, as epic as GBV gets. – Shelly Ridenour

Tracklist:

1-1. Guided By Voices – Show Me the Castle (04:25)
1-2. Guided By Voices – Dear Onion (01:47)
1-3. Guided By Voices – This Will Go On (02:09)
1-4. Guided By Voices – Fictional Environment Dream (03:55)
1-5. Guided By Voices – Olympus Cock in Radiana (02:50)
1-6. Guided By Voices – Leaving Umbrella (03:36)
1-7. Guided By Voices – Cavemen Running Naked (02:22)
1-8. Guided By Voices – Timing Voice (03:32)
1-9. Guided By Voices – Bit of a Crunch (04:42)
1-10. Guided By Voices – Serene King (03:14)
1-11. Guided By Voices – Bicycle Garden (03:07)

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