Guided by Voices is still here

And the question at this point is: why? Indie veteran Guided by Voices has been around and releasing albums since 1987. After a rather hefty, continuous stream of releases, the band dropped their newest addition to the pile on April 7. Featuring over 30 tracks, each clocking in at under three minutes with the exception of 2 tracks (both at 3:30), “August by Cake” was received with little attention or applause. It doesn’t take much effort to understand why.

To be clear, Guided by Voices is no stranger to extremely lengthy albums, with pretty much all of them coming in at around 30 tracks. This isn’t a deterrent in itself when at least some of those tracks stand out in some form, but with 32 tracks of continuous monotony, this interesting quirk quickly becomes a nightmare. If an album forces you to continually check what track number you’re on in hopes that it’s almost over, then it’s fundamentally failing at being an interesting album.

And it’s not to say that the songs on “August by Cake” are sonically offensive or bad. In fact, on their own, the tracks are pretty average, some even slightly catchy. But the thing is, absolutely none of these tracks are singles. None of them are so fantastic that they warrant repeated radio play, or excessive attention. They’re all just “meh.” Within five seconds, the listener knows exactly what the rest of the song will sound like. No highs or lows, no sudden twists and honestly, there might not have been any bridges either. This is an album that sounds like someone took a series of sewing patterns and wrote songs about them; continuous, repetitive and boring.

“August by Cake” makes it fundamentally clear that there’s no grand artistry happening here, just an attempt to keep going. The band is getting old, and it’s nowhere more apparent than in the lead vocals. Hearing age in a voice isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but Guided by Voices doesn’t seem to have tried to adapt to fit its new ages and abilities. The complexity of the vocals has dropped, the intensity of the guitar riffs is minimal and the drumming is mild paced at best.

This album comes off as very similar to the last few Pixies albums; a revival attempt for an early ‘90s band that can’t remember what made them good to begin with. With each mediocre release, the fans get closer to forgetting too. There’s something to be said about a band that explodes violently after three or four albums as opposed to a band that whittles away after 12.

If there’s any value to be found here, I can’t see it. Perhaps if one slogs through every track on this album meticulously, they’ll find something they can enjoy. I certainly couldn’t, and why should you be forced to wait through a pile of rubbage to find one or two dirty, cracked diamonds in the rough? This gimmick of 30 tracks on an album is probably the band’s biggest downfall at this point. It was never a huge boon, but now in the group’s twilight years with its catalogue growing increasingly more stale, Guided by Voices is dooming itself under a mountain of indiscernible garbage while trying to run on whatever fumes it has left.

It’s not fair to say that it’s time to quit, but it’s hard to say that there’s any real way to salvage the band’s sound at this point. “August by Cake” is so fundamentally flawed that you’d be hard pressed to even remember a single title from the album, let alone full song. I suppose the message here is that this album, while not terrible, is completely and utterly forgettable and most likely not worth your time.