Robert Pollard and Guided By Voices (GBV) have again bestowed upon us another excellent new album: Crawlspace Of The Pantheon. A dandy rocker in grand GBV form, this is easily the band’s best since the last best one, which for me was 2025’s Thick Rich And Delicious. And I mean that with all the heart and soul of the deep fan that I am.
While no band likes to be pigeonholed, I sometimes think Guided By Voices deserves its own genre to describe what they do. Initially, I was thinking “Modern Classic Vintage British Rock,” but since GBV are from Dayton, Ohio, perhaps we should just call it “Modern Classic Vintage Rock.”
For me, GBV fills a musical void dating back to my childhood, when everyone anticipated a new Beatles album every six months or so. It was an event. In their own special way, a new GBV release is also an event, chock full of fresh earworms that feel familiar yet new.
Crawlspace Of The Pantheon is another solid sounding, well produced, full studio effort from the band, retaining just enough indie rock aesthetic to make clear that it is a GBV made, self-released, home brewed production. The current GBV is arguably the band’s most consistent lineup, achieving a super appealing balance between its glossier late 1990s and early 2000s first commercial peak, including Do The Collapse and Isolation Drills, and the early LoFi cassette multitrack basement wizardry that first put them on the map in the early 1990s, including Propeller and Bee Thousand.
“Lost In The Sun” kicks off Crawlspace Of The Pantheon echoing The Who and The Cars in the same breath, with Mellotron strings and tight harmonies. Saving its best hook for the very end, the song is one of those tunes I had to immediately play over and over.
“We Outlast Them All” could be a hit single for The Psychedelic Furs. Seriously, I cannot not hear Furs founder Richard Butler singing this song, even though it feels lyrically GBV autobiographical, a grand affirmation of the group’s staying power.
Another single candidate, “Advance Without Dropping,” packs a punch and is elevated by an incredible changeup in its ending bridge sequence: a mesmerizing, rising Doug Gillard guitar solo moment that sends quick chills down the spine.
If “Arthur Square” might be considered a lost cousin to 1969 pre Tommy Who, Mark Shue’s mad bass lines and Kevin March’s rolling drum fills appropriately channel the spirits of John Entwistle and Keith Moon, respectively. Gothic bells, more Mellotrons, and voiceover news reports turn this into a mad, brilliant psychedelic metal meltdown.
“(How Would You Like A) Chariot Ride” riffs on a chord sequence that cleverly echoes “The Punk And The Godfather” from The Who’s Quadrophenia. Try not humming Roger Daltrey’s stuttered “My Generation” melody over that moment.
“When You’re My Clown (Nothing Happens)” is an epic album closer, built around a tremendous chugging communal riff before launching into a beautiful acoustic driven coda. A classic GBV moment.
I think by now you get the idea Crawlspace Of The Pantheon is another shining crazy diamond in a long arc of winning musical gems from Guided By Voices. You can buy it at Amazon on vinyl for $26.39 or on CD for $17.98. Support independent music.
Our Ratings
★★★★★★★★★★ Album
★★★★★★★★★★ Sound Quality
★★★★★★★★★★ Pressing Quality
Where to buy
Mark Smotroff is a deep music enthusiast / collector who has also worked in entertainment oriented marketing communications for decades supporting the likes of DTS, Sega and many others. He reviews vinyl for Analog Planet and has written for Audiophile Review, Sound+Vision, Mix, EQ, etc. You can learn more about him at LinkedIn.
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