Exclusive: Guided By Voices Release New Single “I Will Be A Monk”
The band's 41st album, Universe Room, is out this Friday, February 7.
Photo by Trevor Naud
Guided By Voices is one of the most prolific bands in recent memory, with 40 albums to their name (and 18 in the past decade alone!)—and this year, they’ll be adding yet another record, Universe Room, to an already extensive discography. The album promises to provide “previously undiscovered constellations of sounds,” per their label Rockathon Records, exploring everything from cosmic new-wave landscapes to every nook and cranny of classic indie rock. According to frontman Robert Pollard, the album itself was apparently written with an emphasis on sonic diversity, avoiding repetition of any sort as much as possible—and that approach feels apparent even in just the five singles showcased thus far.
The reverberating, guitar-driven fifth single, “I Will Be A Monk,” is all anthemic slow-burn, even though it clocks in at only ninety seconds. It opens on an almost ‘80s-feeling arpeggio, Foreigner-style, but soon breaks into classic ‘70s guitar licks and drumlines as Pollard sings the titular phrase with a grounded kind of certainty: no longer content to be a scientist, now he will be a monk. It’s undoubtedly a Guided By Voices song, but it manages to carve its own niche amongst the slew of other Universe Room singles—it’s stirring yet steady, setting it apart from the expansive, spacey “Fly Religion,” the shimmering guitar-pop of “Dawn Believes,” the gritty post-punk number “Elfin Flower With Knees,” and the dramatic bent of “The Great Man.”
Universe Room’s experiment with genre and sound is a smart tactic to keep things fresh with Guided By Voices going on 41 albums deep, and the band seems to be loving every second of it. “This is the greatest band (line-up) I’ve ever been in in my life!” drummer Kevin March tells Paste. “It is the band I dreamed of being in since I first started playing drums in the early 70s! Thank you, Robert Pollard! Universe Room is the album that demonstrates the power of this line-up that has been together for nine years and still going strong!”