The Releases: Universal Truths and Cycles (LP—Matador, 2002) / Back to the Lake (Single—Fading Captain Series, 2002) / Cheyenne (Single—Fading Captain Series, 2002) / Everywhere With Helicopter (Single—Fading Captain Series, 2002) / Universal Truths and Cycles (Single—Fading Captain Series, 2002) / The Pipe Dreams of Instant Prince Whippet (EP—Fading Captain Series, 2002)
When I began this project there were certain weeks that I anticipated reaching more than others. The mid-nineties masterpieces are never far from my memory, but I was excited to listen to them within the context of Robert Pollard’s entire career arc. I was also particularly interested in diving more fully into the singles and EPs that surrounded the LPs of that vaunted 1992-1996 era, having only a passing familiarity with them. Of course, I’m always game for a listen of Mag Earwhig and Earthquake Glue, which are my most listened to Guided by Voices records—other than the obvious ones. And, I’m genuinely looking forward to revisiting the “classic lineup” reunion albums, outside of the rapid-fire release context that they were introduced in.
And while there aren’t any weeks that I’m dreading getting to, there are upcoming stretches that I’m a bit less enthusiastic about. Namely, I’ve viewed the albums of the present-day GBV lineup to generally be solid, but I’d be lying if I said that I’ve found (m)any of them to be all that memorable in comparison to the records that I’ve already covered. And while giving each of them a full week of my attention is likely to unearth several tracks worthy of a closer look—and more credit than I’ve given them so far—from my present vantage point, the absurd prolificacy of current-era GBV is gonna make for a long wind-down.
2002’s Universal Truths and Cycles fell somewhere in the middle of my enthusiasm spectrum. In his 2018 Pollard/GBV biography Closer You Are, Matthew Cutter joins a chorus of praise for Truths—hailing it as “one of the finest long-players of [Robert Pollard’s] career.” However, in a 2020 In the Wilderness piece, a pair of my Strange Currencies colleagues and I damned the album with faint praise, before quickly moving on to its follow-up. While I always appreciated the tracks that appeared on the GBV ‘best-of,’ Human Amusements at Hourly Rates (“Back to the Lake” and “Everywhere With Helicopter”), and cited the effervescent “Cheyenne” as another standout, Universal Truths struck me as little more than a decent record, wedged between a pair of clearly superior ones.
And once again, I was wrong. We were all wrong. After a thorough revisitation of Universal Truths, I have concluded that it’s at least an equal of the preceding Isolation Drills, and that it may only be personal associations—more on those next week—that keep Earthquake Glue ahead of it on my own rankings. Yes, once again—at the risk of being predictable—I’m here to declare that Universal Truths and Cycles is yet another excellent Guided by Voices record.
So, what had I been missing for the roughly twenty years that I’ve owned Universal Truths? Aside from the aforementioned trio of songs, there’s another top-flight GBV number in “Christian Animation Torch Carriers,” and a close call in the title track. And in these two songs, one might find the Rosetta Stone that helps in understanding the somewhat unique place that Universal Truths and Cycles holds in Guided by Voices’ mammoth catalog.
Let’s start with the former. “Christian Animation” might be the one song that best exemplifies the overall sound of Universal Truths and Cycles. A multi-part epic, it zigs and zags throughout the “hairpin turns” that Cutter cites in Closer You Are; but rather than coming off as overly showy, its shifts retain the melodic quality that Pollard had built his name upon. And importantly, it finds a satisfying equilibrium point between the glossier sheen of Do the Collapse and Isolation Drills, and the more organic charms that had made GBV heroes amongst the lo-fi set.
“Christian Animation Torch Carriers” also provides ample evidence of a band whose influence towers over Universal Truths: The Who. There’s a decidedly Townshend-esque nature to the shapeshifting on display here, and plenty of Easter eggs can be found throughout the album’s other eighteen tracks. There’s the acoustic guitars and auxiliary percussion of “Zap,” which recall the Sell Out highlight “Mary Ann With the Shaky Hand.” There are the dead ringer Tommy-isms of “Wings of Thorn.” There’s literally a song called “The Ids Are Alright.” Bob Pollard has never been shy about his love of The Who, and Universal Truths may be GBV record that most heavily bears this out.
And while The Who’s influence brings two of Pollard’s “four Ps” (psych and prog) to the table, it’s another long-cited Pollard favorite that helps to supply the other two (pop and punk). I’ve never seen any confirmation that the title of Universal Truths‘ opening track is a direct nod to the art punk greats, but one can certainly hear the influence of Wire running throughout the program—and nowhere more clearly so than in the album’s shimmering title track. “Universal Truths and Cycles” (the song) sounds like nothing less than the love child of “Outdoor Miner” and “Map Ref. 41°N 93°W”: two of Wire’s finest songs. And once that code has been cracked, anyone familiar with Pink Flag, Chairs Missing, and 154—three of the best records of their era, and all three of which made it onto Pollard’s 2020 list of his fifty favorite albums of all-time—won’t have to squint hard to spot Wire’s influence spread across Universal Truths and Cycles (the album).
And there’s something wholly satisfying about hearing two relatively disparate London rock bands looming this large above a record by a group that is so similarly singular. In no small coincidence, Universal Truths was the first album that Guided by Voices made after reuniting with Matador Records, following their failed stint with TVT. In the press release that announced their return, Bob Pollard praised Matador as “fellow rock geeks with the same basic philosophy on record artistry.” It makes total sense that, in hitting a reset button on GBV, Pollard would go back to the foundational cornerstones of his record collection for inspiration.
And in the end, this is where we should hope to find Robert Pollard: on a label that he loves, and that loves him back; with a band that is a mix of old friends and the seasoned pros who could help him reach his loftier ambitions; informed by the useful lessons from his dalliance with the big leagues, but operating freely within the parameters that had defined his formative work; and fully in command of his considerable and idiosyncratic talents, while finding new inspirations in his most treasured influences.
And with all of these factors lined up just right, Pollard and GBV probably could have gone on making excellent records for as long as they wanted to; even if some of us managed to miss them the first—or second—time around.
Ratings: Universal Truths and Cycles (8.3) / Back to the Lake (★★★★) / Cheyenne (★★★★) / Everywhere With Helicopter (★★★★1/2) / Universal Truths and Cycles (★★★★) / The Pipe Dreams of Instant Prince Whippet (7.4)*
*Singles are star-rated by their A-side; albums and EPs use the “Russman Reviews” scale.
Bob-ism of the Week: “For Chrissakes, Charlie / Send them your love / Pictures from happier times / When babies acted like babies / So did the grown-ups / The band played “We All Fall Down” / And some of us did” (“Skin Parade”)
Next Week: GBV hit another late-career highpoint with the thunderous penultimate album of their initial run.
