Album Review: Guided By Voices - English Little League

It seems that the period of releases we have been referring to as 'late-era-GBV' (studio recorded albums including and immediately following the release of Do The Collapse) now seems to be but a blip on the Guided By Voices radar. It's really hard keeping up, even with how many releases Robert Pollard has put out in the last two years, but if you do make the effort to try and follow along, the rewards are huge. 

Tobin Sprout's re-appearance as a regular contributor on the newest GBV albums is invaluable, and proves how much his efforts helped shape Bee Thousand and Alien Lanes to become the benchmarks of the group. Perpetually sounding like he is suspended in 1969, Islands (She Talks In Rainbows) and The Sudden Death Of Epstein's Ways are magnificent, the latter up there with the best Sprout has ever committed to Tascam. 

The record starts with two big Guided By Voices full band numbers – Xeno Pariah is as typical as they get, but both whiz by you on the first pass only to sink in on subsequent listens. Bizarre segments and under-produced ideas sporadically litter the album like Sir Garlic Breath and A Burning Glass but these transitions soon make sense in the larger scheme of the record and are sandwiched in between the fully realised song ideas that make up the bulk of the album. The biggest rock out is saved for the last track W/ Glass In Foot, with Pollard revisiting his love of The Who, borrowing the Can't Explain riff for the verse. 

Once again, they have produced a necessary, probably vital chapter in the ever-expanding, wonderful bible of GBV.