Guided By Voices-English Little League (GBVI Records 2013)

Guided By Voices are an independent rock group from the outskirts of Dayton, Ohio. The group was formed in the early 1980's by singer/guitarist Robert Pollard (who was working as an elementary school teacher at the time.) The group's early records never really made it out the greater Dayton area and are now very rare and collectible. GBV finally broke through in 1994 with their critically acclaimed album Bee Thousand, which was incredible record that drew from a wide variety of influences such as The Who, Syd Barrett era Pink Floyd, Moby Grape and post-punk outfits such as Wire. 

Guided By Voices released an impressive string of records throughout the last 20 years before splitting up in 2004. GBV leader Pollard was enjoying a fine solo career in recent years before deciding to put GBV back together in 2011. Pollard was lucky enough to be able to piece together the group's acclaimed mid 90's lineup which features second songwriter Tobin Sprout and guitarist Mitch Mitchell. Since reforming the group has issued four outstanding albums that capture the magic of the band during their peak years in the 90's. English Little League is the group's most recent album, it was released in April and is easily the best album the group has made since reforming and is on par with the best things they have ever done. 

English Little League is loaded with strong material that perfectly blends the band's lo-fi roots with their more finely crafted recent material. Pollard delivers several devastating tracks such as Trash Can Full Of Nails, Send It To Celeste, Biographer Seahorse and W/Glass In Foot, while Tobin Sprout supplies the superb The Quiet Game. Truthfully their really isn't a bum track on the whole record (which is a common occurrence on most GBV albums.) The album was preceded by a dynamite 6 track EP called Down By The Racetrack. Both releases are absolutely essential!

David Furgess