Universal Truths and Cycles

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RESTOCK. VINYL FORMAT. The new Guided By Voices record, "Universal Truths And Cycles," is being trumpeted by the band and assorted hangers-on as a “return to autonomy” but we have reason to believe that no one in the band can spell autonomy, even when drunk. There’s a few reasons it has been thus tagged: 1) because it’s self-produced, marking a return to old-school GbV ways (see "Bee Thousand," "Alien Lanes," "Under The Bushes, Under The Stars") and 2) like those earlier albums, there’s a fine mix of sandpapery snippets and semi-gloss punk/prog/pop. But the third and maybe the biggest reason large-syllabled words are being hurled like eggs at the new album is who’s putting it out. Matador Records, New York City.
"Universal Truths And Cycles," described by Pollard as “Alien Lanes meets Isolation Drills,” and by us as “the new Guided By Voices album,” may be the best thing the band has ever produced. Studio savvy when it needs to be —- see big rock numbers like “Back To The Lake” and “Cheyenne” —- and intimate, even tossed-off where appropriate —- see “Father Sgt. Christmas Card” and “The Weeping Bogeyman” —- "Univeral Truths And Cycles" arc-welds the lessons learned working in professional recording studios to the spontaneous approach of earlier, wild-haired Guided By Voices albums. The result: delicious pie! "UTAC" should please lo-fi nostalgia freaks and studio sheen addicts alike, and those few not yet convinced of Pollard’s songwriting genius will be left slack-jawed and drooling at the quantity and quality of musical ideas compressed into three-minute gems like “Everywhere With Helicopter,” “Eureka Signs,” and “Pretty Bombs,” featuring the string quartet Invert.