The 16th album from the most rockin of the indie rockers, lo-fi godfathers, Ohio legends GUIDED BY VOICES is here. The thing is called LET’S GO EAT THE FACTORY. This is the band’s first album with its “classic” lineup(which notably includes guitarist Tobin Sprout) since whenever it is that they were classic… And the album, with much in the way of lo-fi aesthetics, and strewn with hooks as it is, is a throw back to that same era’s ALIEN LANES, perhaps the most accessible record in the whole Guided By Voices catalog. “The Head” is some very heavy riffing, pounding drums and in your face organ. All of that adds up to GBV tossing off some real attitude right as this 21 song album kicks off. “The Unsinkable Fats Domino” is classic rockin and melodic Robert Pollard songwriting. The chorus has taken up camp in my noggin for the foreseeable future. “Cyclone Utilities(Remember Your Birthday)” is the first of the songs I’ve mentioned that breaks the 2 minute mark. Here, again we find another brutal riff and more classic GBV feel. What songwriters can pull off this kind of goodness for so long?? All hail King Pollard.
