GUIDED BY VOICES
Half Smiles of the Decomposed
Matador
· After 15 full-length albums, nearly the same number of lineup changes, almost countless EPs, three box sets and a flirtation with the major labels, former Dayton, Ohio school teacher Bob Pollard pulls the plug on Guided by Voices.
I suppose it’s a little foolish for me to be getting weepy at the demise of Guided by Voices. When you consider the sheer output of the band, even if they never put out another record I would still have days worth of material to listen to. Besides, most naysayers would tell you that the band peaked with their stunning album Under the Bushes Under the Stars almost a decade ago. If you consider that frontman (and only constant member) Bob Pollard has written over 2,500 songs in his career (and has released solo albums that sound just like Guided by Voices albums anyway) I’m sure he will have some kind of release out shortly.
So, that leaves us with the task of assessing Half Smiles of the Decomposed. Had Pollard not released the monstrous career-spanning box set late last year, this album would play like a tight little retrospective that captured something from almost every era of GBV. Pollard’s acoustic-electric swap-overs and his nearly opaque lyrics littered with cloudy English lit. references are strained through crunchy British Invasion guitar. At times it’s The Byrds by way of R.E.M., at times it’s bubblegum prog, and while this certainly isn’t the strongest GBV outing, it is typical. From his early lo-fi home recordings to his one-a-year studio albums, Pollard has never been one for self-censoring, and as such this work is hit-and-miss. With no stand-out "hits" (save for the chunky "Closets of Henry") the album is a collection of pretty good songs punctuated by a lyrical career low (in the form of "Asia Minor"). Still, Pollard finishes strong with "Huffman Prairie Flying Field," a chugging hulk of four-chord nostalgia that is as fitting an epitaph as any GBV song could be. No bonus points for a swan song, though.
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