Lately, I’ve been tired by the sub classifications and sub-sub classifications music has taken on. I understand the difference between pop, rock and metal and folk. I can see how you might need to clarify one from the other to keep unsuspecting listeners from having heart attacks or driving them into homicidal rage. But the whole alt.rock-country, folk-speed-metal, ‘tweener pop, math rock pigeonholing psychology has gone way too far.

So I am pleased to announce that Guided By Voices’ Earthquake Glue is one of the best rock albums of the year.

Falling comfortably between Under The Bushes, Under The Stars and Mag Earwhig, this release seeks to take the studio know-how gained from their TVT Records stint and use it with writer and frontman Robert Pollard’s sometimes fractured vision of rock music. The combination works surprisingly well, certainly better than it did on their previous outing, Universal Truths and Cycles which, although it was a very good recording in its own right, sounded constricted by the tenet of producing a saleable single. On Earthquake Glue, the band is back making the songs first and worrying about which one is radio-ready later.

Being radio-ready has never been a real problem for GBV though. They were ready ever since “…Bushes” jolt of studio sound, “The Official Ironman Rally Song”. But the mainstream never latched on, even with Ric Ocasek’s produced “Do The Collapse”. That melancholy hangs over this disc’s proceedings and it’s hard to pinpoint exactly where that feeling comes from. I can’t say it’s a particular lyric or theme; just an intuition the listener gets. Pollard seems to have a lot on his mind right now, but like the parent that shields the kids from the verbal sparring, the evidence may not be evident but the residue remains. Ordinarily, that would sour the work but I found the notion of a Guided By Voices “sad album” intriguing.

The band, as always, is up for anything and it isn’t hard to see why the modern rock elite adores them, immortalized in videos by The Strokes and has garnered such a loyal following. But again, the efficiency of the music, the sheer gut-check of rock, is all over the disc. Songs like “Beat Your Wings” and “The Best of Jill Hives”, with it’s no-nonsense lines “I don’t know where you get your nerve, I don’t know how you choose your words, Speak the ones that suit you worst”, are delivered without looking for descriptions or tags. This is just a super, solid rock album.

I’d recommend Earthquake Glue to GBV fans (who probably already have it), but I’d also recommend it to anyone who is tired of the ever-splintering musical network, confused by which type, genus or species of rock music is the one they actually like. There is something to be said about just putting a recording into the player and enjoying it. This is the one and will probably stay in the player for quite a while.

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My Kind of Soldier
My Son, My Secretary, and My Country
I'll Replace You With Machines
She Goes Off at Night
Beat Your Wings
Useless Inventions
Dirty Water
The Best of Jill Hives
Dead Cloud
Mix Up the Satellite
The Main Street Wizards
A Trophy Mule In Particular
Apology in Advance
Secret Star
Of Mites and Men