Given today’s dicey political climate, feel free to read whatever you want into Guided By Voices’ latest single and lines like, “Do not question an arrow drawn by a great man/We’re standing up betting on a great man.” We’re certain the band’s fearless leader wouldn’t have it any other way.
“It’s about the airs, appearances, promises and lies typically found in world politics,” says Robert Pollard of “The Great Man,” one of 17 tracks on Guided By Voices’ 41st album, Universe Room, available February 7 via GBV Inc.
Pollard hasn’t taken so much as a breath of over the past decade, releasing 20 GBV albums and backing them up with consistent touring. Fittingly, Universe Room covers a vast swath of stylistic and sonic ground in less than 40 minutes. Working again with producer Travis Harrison, Pollard was looking to create “a wild ride” that rewards repeat listens. And while most of the songs feature the usual GBV lineup of Doug Gillard, Kevin March, Mark Shue and Bobby Bare Jr., Pollard crafted a few tracks on his own. He also went out of his way to avoid repetition, “so you get a lot of sections that happen only once or twice.”
We’re proud to premiere Guided By Voices’ “The Great Man.”
—Hobart Rowland
