Staff Reviews

Guided By Voices - August By Cake

Review by Kellan Miller

Pollard desperately needs to revisit the formula that consecrated the band as indie rock gods in the first place»

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Guided By Voices’ August By Cake is the one hundredth studio album that Robert Pollard has released since 1986’s Forever Since Breakfast. To put that in perspective, Bob Dylan has released roughly thirty nine studio albums since 1959. And that includes the Traveling Wilburys. This is a highly anticipated record, which includes the new line-up (returning Guided by Voices veterans Doug Gillard and Kevin March, virgins Bobby Bare Jr and Mark Shue) that has been wowing audience in clubs and festivals throughout 2016. It’s the most musically adept and versatile line-up Pollard has ever assembled. With thirty two songs, this album is also Guided by Voice’s first ever double album, and song contributions from all five band members is additional icing on the cake, setting album number100 apart from the previous ninety nine. The double album is an important format in Pollard’s own musical iconography, and he doesn’t take the form lightly - one reason he’s planned and abandoned several would-be Guided by Voices double albums in the past is his high regard for foundational works like Quadrophenia, the White Album, The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, Daydream Nation, Zen Arcade, Double Nickels On the Dime - “defining records for these bands,” says Pollard. It’s important to him that August By Cake not just be a double album but that it be a great one
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