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Dayton Daily News
By Ron Rollins

Guided By Voices
Universal Truths and Cycles
Matador Records

There are few bands for which it could be said that a step back is actually a step forward — but then, Guided by Voices aren’t like most other bands. That’s why this relentlessly noncommercial combo of middle-aged eccentrics from Dayton keeps attracting the blown kisses of critics and cultish fans from around the globe, perhaps even to their own continued surprise.

Universal Truths and Cycles marks GBV’s return to fiesty independent label Matador after spending a few years trying to crack the charts with larger TVT. Universal . . . harkens cheerfully back to GBV’s older, rougher sound. But band brain Robert Pollard has clearly picked up a thing or two from making Do the Collapse and Isolation Drills, the TVT discs that teamed GBV with producers whose spit-n-polish made a few fans murmur “sellout.”