Time is of the essence for Guided by Voices. For a band that released five new albums in 2020 and another two in 2021, alone, even a global pandemic didn’t contain the expanse of new music flowing out of Robert Pollard and co.
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Continuing the copious releases is the band’s 35th album Crystal Nuns Cathedral, out March 22, 2022, now 35 years since the band’s debut Devil Between My Toes.
“This record is a statement, a challenge, a monument, a call to arms,” read a statement by the band’s label Guided By Voices Inc. “Top this one if you can, this is the new benchmark. Who will best it? Who will try?”
Following up the previous release It’s Not Them. It Couldn’t Be Them. It Is Them! in 2021, Crystal Nuns Cathedral kicks off with “Excited Ones.”
Filled with persistent riffs, “Excited Ones” is a hyper-flashed power-pop anthem with Pollard rallying encouraging a braver uprising on They squeeze half to death / and miss you when you’re gone… They curse you every day / with all the rules to break / but never fail to break it down.
“Excited One” is one of 12 tracks on the new album, also featuring the pulsing “Never Mind the List,” and the more sweeping “Forces to Sea” and “Climbing a Ramp.”
Following up Earth Man Blues and It’s Not Them. It Couldn’t Be Them. It Is Them! in 2021, Crystal Nuns Cathedral marks a milestone moment since the band’s 1987 debut.
To support the new music, the band has a number of U.S. tour dates, with some postponements in New York and Boston, due to the increase in Omicron cases.
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Crystal Nuns Cathedral Tracklist
1. Eye City
2. Re-Develop
3. Climbing A Ramp
4. Never Mind the List
5. In the Pipe
6. Come North Together
7. Forced to Sea
8. Huddled
9. Excited Ones
10. Of Your Doctor
11. River Man
12. Crystal Nuns Cathedral
Photo: Trevor Naud
