Guided by Voices is now an unlikely candidate for the most perfect rock band of all time, while at the same time being a thoughtful reflection on what a rock band is, a fantasy that becomes a fact. Sweating The Plague, the band's 29th album and their third this year, spars playfully with stadium-sized fidelity and uncharacteristically impactful arrangements. Producer Travis Harrison's counterintuitive approach to Guided by Voices' historically lo-fi sound is that he doesn't want it to sound homemade, while the grinding tectonic plate guitars of Doug Gillard and Bobby Bare Jr. Anchor the album. Play it loud! Being a fan of Guided by Voices can feel like standing in a ticker-tape parade and reaching out to grab at stray releases as the endless flurry of output from the Needmore Songs publishing house billows around-but here's twelve compatible nuggets of Pollard content in one handy package, all boxed up and ready to go.
