Nowhere To Go But Up (2023)

 Nowhere To Go But Up

(2023, Guided by Voices Inc.)

Through the years, Pollard has dropped hints and anecdotes about his writing styles, inspirations, and sometimes personal challenges to help him achieve new songs/ideas (collecting bits of misheard words from conversations and TV shows to construct many lyrics on Blazing Gentlemen comes to mind) . For Nowhere to Go But Up, Pollard announced that GBV had successfully recorded an LP devoid of choruses! A pretty bold announcement for a band cementing their legacy with some of the catchiest earworms and barbed aural hooks put to rock critic paper, generally in chorus form.

However, from the start, it's evident that Pollard's still the master of pulling hooks from thin air, and that some of the best GBV moments littered about their vast landscape come during verses, bridges, and song snippets that never com achieve any sort of traditional song structure in the first place. Writing 5000 songs will do that to you.

  Is the record really devoid of choruses? There's one or 2 in there, one could argue. Still, Pollard and the band build a cycle of songs that rest heavily on mood; a melancholy mix of triumph and pain. It's a record that feels both burdened by the regrets of life, and exalted by the joys of living. There's an underlying victory lap within the grooves, perhaps propelled by the bells of the title track that set the stage for this grandiose, often bold album. It's one that manages as one of the strongest in their early 2020's run of LPs. 

SIDE A:

The Race Is On, The King Is Dead- 5  Starting with a declaration, guitar and bells chime out before the band cannonballs in. From go, you can tell Travis Harrison was locked in for this one. Massive sounding! And in the fashion of this record, this song is wonderfully triumphant but also has a massively palpable melancholy attached. It's an epic blast; a sustained blare that seems to keep trying to out top itself. Pollard is top notch here in the vocal department. If this is what you get in an LP without choruses, sign me up! 

Puncher's Parade- 5 A song, that if you wish to let it in with guard down, can hang heavy on the heartstrings and you're not even sure for what exactly. A midtempo, delectably repetitive distorted guitar jangle holds this reflective sounding track together. Once again, the whole song sounds massive in the speakers, even when the band's subdued. Pollard has honey and conviction in the throat. A song that evokes timelessness. 

Local Master Airplane- 4 At just over 2 minutes, this feels like the pop nugget that bridges the opening tracks to what feels like loosely connected sister tracks in "How Did He..." and "Stabbing..." Fairly straightforward power pop with some grit. The bridge (?) where Pollard sings about "liquid business" is a brilliant change up. The upwardly shooting guitar lead outs at the end!.. Good LORD! 

How Did He Get Up There?- 5 Opens in this wonderfully hooky bog of sadness and reflection. From the slower trudge to the horn blasts that accent the band, this song comes through almost as a distortion soaked memory.... hovering high above me. Speaking of repetitive, here I go again but damn Pollard's vocals push this over the top into absolutely essential territory. Love the conceptual instrumental build at the end by the band, as if preparing to take flight. Incredibly cool move! Yes, smash that fucking piano too!

Stabbing At Fractions- 5 Can't describe it, but if you want to win over my heart this is one way to start a song! Thanks for jumping into the pocket immediately, and with some thunder behind it!  Oh, and it's immediately catchy. And it builds and builds and builds. The vocals, you ask? Oh yeah, angels came down and anointed his throat for this record, I'm starting to believe.  Another one where by the end, if you're not singing the "extenuating" back ups after a few listens I don't know how to help you get through the rest of your life. 

Side B:

Love Set- 3 After an A side that was about as perfect a run as the band has started with on record, it immediately opens with a massive prog rock dream that rises in the speakers for nearly a minute a half. The song kicks in, finding the band settling into the proggiest territory yet on the record. A song that sounds truly born out of the Pollard cut and paste demoing method. A song that grew on me as I continue to find nuance in these parts. 

We're Going the Wrong Way- 3 Has a bit of that Wire vibe Bob likes to pull from. A darker, prickly post punk song with pop moments and heavenly vocals. Shoutout to Mark Shue for the perfectly simple bass accompaniment on this that really gives the song its feel. 

Jack of Leg- 4   A song that comes crashing out of the gate into a guitar heavy grind, complete with elevated psych vibes thanks to Pollard sounding like he time traveled from the  Do the Collapse sessions. A multifaceted track, constructed rock opera style from various Pollaradian pieces. And as the "and we just smiled" part breaks out at exactly the mid point, you think you're about to hear the greatest pop song ever!... and then it switches gears into trumpet backed tribal grandiose finale.  Additionally, hearing this live and on the live official bootleg Goodnight El Dorado made this really click!  

For the Home- 5 Cryptically, this one begins with seemingly innocuous guitar noodling that goes on for far too long. At first, it seems arbitrary but after about 3 listens I pretty much had those parts melted into my brain. Anyone who says shorten it, be dammed! Perfectly segues into its infectious see-saw guitar backed stomp. 10 outta 10 in the vocal department. A lead-the-charge anthem that wears its heart on its sleeve. Love the psych disintegration of the song as it fades into the void. 

Cruel For Rats- 3 The most snarled the band has sounded on the record. A darker mid-tempo song that again sounds like it's exploding from your speakers. A song that would have absolutely killed lived but was sadly never performed. Reminds me of Zeppelin Over China era stuff. 

Song and Dance- 3 Pollard absolutely carries the opening for over a minute and half, the guitars supporting in their own vulnerable sounding way. The song eventually breaks into the most wonderfully druggy the band has sounded, as if that was something I didn't realize I was missing. The song gets an injection and leads out with a brief pop flourish before Gillard and Bare perform some guitar heroics. The slide whistle choir leading us out of this absolute mind trip of a record (if you allow it to be, and you should!), is the bow on top.