The Releases: Earth Man Blues (LP—GBVi, 2021)
Any serious attempt to peek into the artistic mind of Robert Pollard will quickly uncover his well-documented affection for The Who. The explosive London quartet clearly represented something of a platonic ideal of a rock and roll band to Pollard—and, if one were talking solely about the group’s work of the mid-sixties, I’d be highly inclined to agree. The Who were among the very first bands that I ever paid close attention to, and their early run of singles—including “Anyway Anyhow Anywhere,” “Substitute,” “Happy Jack,” and “Pictures of Lily”—is in my mind, about as good as rock music has ever been.
During The Who’s middle years, leader Pete Townshend became fixated on concept, believing that his band could deliver compelling narratives within the traditional structures of pop music. The first product of this was 1966’s multi-part suite, “A Quick One, While He’s Away.” Closing out The Who’s second album—a record to which it leant a name—”A Quick One” uses hooks, humor, and the blunt force of rock and roll’s greatest rhythm section to document the decline and reconciliation of a relationship. While the original studio recording may sound tentative when compared to the eventual powerhouse versions that the group would perform on stage, “A Quick One” still tells a cohesive story in a manner that is both catchy and a hell of a lot of fun.
Of course, Townshend’s penchant for grand statements would reach its peak after “A Quick One.” In 1969, The Who released the self-described “rock opera,” Tommy. The twenty-four song album is overblown, awkward, and utterly ridiculous; and yes, I absolutely love it. Next was the aborted Lifehouse project, whose convoluted narrative was eventually scrapped, but whose best songs would be repurposed to form the bulk of the arena rock landmark, Who’s Next (1971). Then, there was 1973’s Quadrophenia: the point in which concept may have ultimately overwhelmed song craft, but that still produced a fascinating (and often-stellar) album nonetheless.
When listening through the catalog of Guided by Voices, it becomes readily apparent that Bob Pollard is a fan of those three Who records; and if you need more explicit proof, note that all three of them ranked within the top seventeen spots on Pollard’s list of favorite albums. However, with only a few exceptions, Pollard seemed hesitant to fully indulge in the ‘concept album’ when crafting Guided by Voices records. 1990’s story-based Same Place the Fly Got Smashed fit the bill, but beyond that, the closest that Pollard came—at least with Guided by Voices—was the abandoned The Power of Suck song cycle, which was originally slated to be the follow-up to 1995’s Alien Lanes.
But while one can find thematic threads running through plenty of the GBV records that appeared in the interim, it wasn’t until 2021’s Earth Man Blues that Pollard once again returned to the concept album format. Granted, this return was in typically Pollardian form, as Earth Man Blues is characteristically tough to parse. For what it’s worth, it appears to be a coming-of-age story about a boy named Harold Admore Harold; the liner notes contain cryptic plot points preceding each song’s lyrics; and there are multiple unexplained references to a John H. Morrison. But aside from these differences, Earth Man Blues presents itself as a relatively standard latter-day Guided by Voices album.
And as these things go, it’s pretty much par for the course. Earth Man Blues houses a handful of reasonably sharp hooks inside of its burly production. The band is firing on all cylinders, and Pollard remains a compelling focal point throughout. It all sounds great while it’s coming through the speakers, but—unless you’ve spent a lot of time with it—you might have trouble recalling much about Earth Man Blues when it’s not playing. Any self-respecting fan could easily cite a favorite track—for me it’s “Free Agents”—but it would be hard to imagine any of them directing a GBV skeptic toward this record.
Despite this, I can still remember plenty of those GBV fans enthusiastically dusting off another well worn rock and roll trope when Earth Man Blues arrived: referring to it as “the best Guided by Voices record since (insert recent-ish favorite here).” And if Pete Townshend is the patron saint of the concept album, it’s probably Bob Dylan who serves that function for the “best album since…” cliché. After all, how many records—including more than a few middling ones—have been cited as Dylan’s best work since Desire?
But I don’t begrudge any GBV enthusiast who swears by Earth Man Blues. Likewise for Zeppelin Over China, Do the Collapse, or even Sandbox. Why would I? How could I? At the end of the day, these folks all share a passion for something that I also love. Besides, they might find my advocacy of Devil Between My Toes, Earthquake Glue, The Bears for Lunch, or Surrender Your Poppy Field equally difficult to understand. This stuff is all subjective, right? After all, Bob Pollard himself rated what is easily my favorite Who record, The Who Sell Out—which I’d also argue houses their most interesting concept—below the three aforementioned albums. To each their own, right?
But on that note, between now and the time that I publish the next entry in this ongoing project, Guided by Voices will have released yet another album—their second of 2025—titled Thick Rich and Delicious. So far, I’ve only heard the first few singles. However, something tells me that plenty of folks may soon be dusting off that old “best album since…” trope. Will Thick merely be GBV’s best since February’s Universe Room, or might we need to reach back further this time?
Rating: Earth Man Blues (7.0)
*Singles are star-rated by their A-side; albums and EPs use the “Russman Reviews” scale.
Bob-ism of the Week: “We all shine on like diamond rings / Never been to heaven / But I heard good things” (“Free Agents”)
Next Week: Guess who releases another album? It’s Not Them. It Couldn’t Be Them. It Is Them!
