Guided by Voices: Strut of Kings ( 2024 )

      Well, we have finally reached the end of this odyssey through the catalog of the current lineup of Guided by Voices. Strut of Kings is the only scheduled release for 2024, and came out last Friday. I have to admit, I haven't been able to pick up a copy yet. I'm waiting to hear from Record Den to see if they received a copy yet. If they did I will pick it up later today. I have listened to it several times on YouTube, so I will press ahead and wrap up this deep dive. After the first listen, I was a little disappointed and felt it was a low 3.5 stars. Having listened to it several more times, I'm coming around a bit and it's probably up to a high 3.5 stars. There are a couple catchy tracks, but it's mostly prog influenced. 

     The highlights are the ear worm tracks, "Serene King" and "Fictional Environment Dream". "Serene King", in particular, has been stuck in my head since it was released as an advanced single. It's infectious as Hell and finds Robert Pollard at the peak of his pop skills. The lyrics are fantastic. I love the pre-chorus that leads into the simple chorus: "Everywhere I go people want to know who I am so I tell them I am the Serene King. In a half-asleep dream. Waltz across a battlefield. Oh, my name is Serene (4x)". "Fictional Environment Dream" is a classic, jangly Guided by Voices pop song, even though it clocks in at about four minutes. Doug Gillard really carries this one. In contrast, they may have written the world's shortest Prog epic with the 2:51 "Olympus Cock in Radiana". This track is a distant cousin to an older song, "Don't Stop Now", which was about a real-life, vicious rooster called Big Daddy. It's the de facto title track since it includes the line "strut of kings". It's definitely the most brilliantly concise prog song in their catalog. It's great that Pollard now has a band that can pull off something like this. Unfortunately, the rest of the album is a collection of 3-star songs. There's nothing horrible, but also nothing else that's memorable. I'm leaning towards it being the highest ranked 3.5 album, though. 

     My next post will be a final album ranking of this discography and a playlist of essential tracks. This was a fun exercise and it has me fired up for the Grog Shop show on the 20th. I looked at their recent setlists, and they are playing many of the standout songs from these albums, such as, the two tracks I mentioned from Strut of Kings", "Song and Dance", "Mr. Child", "Alex Bell", "Romeo Surgeon", and "To Keep an Area". It's gonna be a blast. Peace.