MAGNET

By Fred Mills

Guided by Voices

Mag Earwhig!

(Matador)

Not quite the rumored Guided By Voices concept album, not quite the whispered KISS-style arena rock nod, and not quite the "meet the new GBV, not more talented than the old GBV" set snidely bandied about by Internet geeks, either. Regarding the last point: While many of these tunes do feature Robert Pollard backed by Cobre Verde - and the pairing is an inspired one, with Pollard even giving props to CV guitarist Doug Gillard by recording his Big Star-ish "I Am A Tree" (a thumping, uh, gem) - some were also done under the eye of producer John Croslin and still others are back to basement Pollard/Tobin Sprout/Jim Pollard recordings. On point numero two: Mag Earwhig! is the biggest, baddest, unyielding rawk LP's worth of tunage ever commited to the GBV discography. Big fat drum sound, mucho instrument separation and depth, echo out the proverbial wazoo (especially on vox) and - gasp! - a radio-ready ambience throughout. Are you listening to "Bulldog Skin" with its dirty chord-punk crunch and "woo-hoo" vocals that out-Blur that hit Blur tune? Or to the follow up hit, the unrepentant pop ballad and natural "date" tune (for soundtrack action, natch) "Knock "Em Flying"? Or to chugging, Cheap Trick-does-Stones-covering-KISS staccato-riff-rocker "Little Lines"? Or to that ripe-for-a-remix, grandly atmospheric "Portable Men's Society"? Or to Mag Earwhig!'s Beatles number, "Jane of the Waking Universe"? With a little marketing savvy applied in the right places, this could be GBV's Achtung Baby! As far as that stylistic question, well, anyone who's paid more than an earful's worth of attention to Robert Pollard knows his musical inspiration and historical obsessions, which include, run through and all the way past prog, glam, psych, Ethiopian lute dances - you name it. Mag Earwhig! is the finest in a long line of exceedingly fine GBV albums, but it's no more a "new" direction in music for Pollard than my happenin' haircut is a new direction in aerodynamics.