For better or worse, Guided by Voices leader Robert Pollard has always staunchly resisted the quality-over-quantity rule. In addition to the band’s proper albums, GBV has now issued five rarities box sets, each containing 100 tracks or more. So even fans will likely shrug knowing that August by Cake, GBV’s 24th studio album, is a 32-track double-album. Pollard also claims that it’s his 100th release overall (knock yourself out if you want to go combing the internet for an exact count).
A good deal of Pollard’s charm stems from his willingness to release unformed sketches of songs that barely develop past the work-in-progress stage. But Pollard’s prolific output can also be read as an obsessive quest to master the art of songwriting. And once you hear his most committed songs, it can be frustrating to return to his shoebox of cassette demos. Take the string-laced 2004 tune “Window of My World.” In under three minutes, Pollard steers the band through folk balladry, orchestral pop, and dreamy, anthemic psychedelic rock—an irresistibly catchy confection of a song that made you wonder why Pollard didn’t push himself more often. Strangely enough, though, August by Cake benefits from Pollard not trying too hard.
Since their 2010 reformation, Guided by Voices have nearly doubled the pace of their output, releasing two and even three albums in the same year. Somewhere along the way, Pollard crossed over from displaying a lack of effort into embodying effortlessness, and in terms of scope and flow, August by Cake coalesces into one of Pollard’s most complete efforts. As always, several of the new tunes consist of one idea repeated in trademark GBV fashion and then abruptly cut short. Sequenced without pauses between songs, the album surprisingly doesn’t become exhausting because, for once, Pollard doesn’t disrupt his own flow.
In fact, more than Pollard or any of his bandmates, it’s the song sequencing that steals the show here. When a bright church organ swoops in to lift the woozy “Generox Gray Ⓡ” out of its downtempo doldrums, your ears immediately perk up—for all of seven seconds, that is, until the song is over. Rather than doom the track to its fate as yet another incomplete song fragment, Pollard gives the brevity of the organ a purpose by segueing directly into the faux-electronic drumbeat of “When We All Hold Hands at the End of the World.”
By the time you get to the premature fade-out on fifth track “We Liken the Sun,” the album’s cadence is established and the entrance of the next song actually feels welcome. From there, there’s no shortage of small-but-significant attributes to pick apart and savor over repeated listens. The harmonies and guitar wash of “Goodbye Note” recall Bob Mould in Sugar, and bassist Mark Shue’s lead vocals on “Absent the Man” are a breath of fresh air. But most noteworthy is the absence of Pollard’s typical filler, shared before it had a chance to blossom.
Like any songwriter steadily plying his craft, Pollard has grown almost imperceptibly understated and even tasteful with his decisions. August by Cake is as much a sum of those choices as it is of songs. After over 30 years in pursuit of the perfect song, Pollard has finally started to recognize the album for everything it can be.
