As is usually the case, there’s a new Guided by Voices album on the horizon, with Nowhere to Go but Up serving as the third LP Robert Pollard’s band has released (so far) in 2023. “When you’ve recorded 120 albums, there’s no need for motivation and ideas,” Pollard coolly shares of what is by many estimates the band’s 39th album to date. “It’s one continuous adventure. Perpetual motion. It’s another chapter. Another integer in the overall equation. One that never really gets answered, satisfied, solved, or resolved.”
The record was formally announced a few weeks ago with the fairly expansive lead single “For the Home,” which is followed today by the more immediately hooky opening track “The Race Is on, the King Is Dead”—a rousing and triumphant declaration embellished by bells and strings. “I would definitely think that it sets the tone in an anthemic sort of way,” Pollard notes of the opener. “[It] adds to the somewhat emotional conceptual feel bookended on the other side with [closer] ‘Song and Dance.’”
Along with celebrating 39 albums with this one’s release next month, the project also celebrated 40 years as a unit earlier this year. In spite of that, Nowhere to Go but Up—as its title implies—proves there’s still plenty of fuel in the tank. “The point is to always be seeking an interesting record—hopefully better than the ones before, but that’s subjective,” Pollard concludes. “I seek to entertain myself and others, and I won’t release a record if I don’t think that's happening.”
Check out the new track below, and pre-order the new LP here.
