Crawlspace Of The Pantheon

Crawlspace Of The Pantheon

More proggy power-pop hits from Bob Pollard’s bottomless canon. “We outlast them all,” Robert Pollard declares on the namesake lead single from Guided by Voices’ 43rd(!) studio album, and he’s more than earned the right to boast. But while GBV’s endurance for four decades is a remarkable achievement in and of itself, the combination of Pollard’s ceaseless productivity, ageless voice, and fierce commitment to crafting the perfect power-pop song is, at age 68, nothing short of miraculous. Though Pollard remains GBV’s undeniable creative center, Crawlspace of the Pantheon gives the locked-in lineup of guitarists Doug Gillard and Bobby Bare Jr., bassist Mark Shue, and drummer Kevin March ample space to flex their muscle: The aforementioned “We Outlast Them All” may shimmer and sway in the vein of mid-’90s classics like “The Official Ironmen Rally Song,” but in its last minute, it intensifies into a dramatic, galloping finale that Pollard probably would’ve excised from his earlier lo-fi tapestries. And even when the songs seem to be taking a more straightforward tack, Crawlspace of the Pantheon abounds with the sort of strange left turns that could spring from only Pollard’s byzantine brain: The hard-charging “Advance Without Dropping” showcases GBV at their punkiest before revealing a gently waltzing chorus, while “Arthur Square” tricks you into thinking it’s a New Wave-y rocker until it mutates into an ostentatious chamber-prog overture.