Guided By Voices‘ “Crystal Nuns Cathedral” is a startling late-career classic that brings back the welcome string arrangements from the last record and flaunts some of the most uplifting, imaginative rock songs of recent memory. Robert Pollard raises the stakes yet again with a hi-fi indie rock record for the ages and one of Pollard’s finest works. Here in-house producer Travis Harrison (known as the sixth member of Guided by Voices and now the equivalent of a George Martin for the band) delivers the most cultivated production possible, the latest iteration of the band sounding like an arena-tested live institution of the highest order.
The mighty Guided by Voices are set to unleash upon the world their 35th and quite possibly…BEST album, “Crystal Nuns Cathedral” . How do they do it you might ask? Well we don’t know how they do it, but we certainly do know WHY they do it. They do it because quite honestly we NEED them to do it. The world needs The Rock, and we need loud guitars, we need anthemic songs, we need a reason to raise a rock fist in the air and give a “Hell Yeah”! On “Crystal Nuns Cathedral”, the band delivers all of this and so much more.
On “It’s Not Them. It Couldn’t Be Them. It Is Them!” slick production moves such as the fade-in to “Black and White Eyes in a Prism” and the underwater static of guitar riffs on “The Bell Gets out of the Way” perfectly wedded a hi-fi sound with a lo-fi ethos. This same mindset saturates the solid rock edifice of “Crystal Nuns Cathedral”. It’s an album indie fans won’t sleep through. Albeit brief, with “Crystal Nuns Cathedral”, Pollard and co. have struck gold once again, delivering a hi-fi record that proves itself to be just as virtuosic and inventive as any indie rock album of recent memory.
This record is a statement, a challenge, a monument, a call to arms. Top this one if you can, this is the new benchmark. Who will best it? Who will try? Listen to “Crystal Nuns Cathedral”, and report back to us. We will be eagerly waiting.
released March 4th, 2022
All songs written by Robert Pollard, Needmore Songs (BMI)
Produced by Travis Harrison
GBV: Robert Pollard, Doug Gillard, Bobby Bare Jr., Mark Shue, Kevin March
The Fat Angel Sings 