GUIDED BY VOICES - Thick, Rich and Delicious [LP, GBV, Inc, 2025]
I remain so grateful to be a part of the team that helps Robert Pollard’s brilliant songs become finished Guided By Voices albums. TRaD is the 19th GBV LP I’ve produced in a row. The songs are so good. The band is so powerful and focused. We recorded the music for this one live in the studio to 2” tape. Raw, live and loud in the room. Thick, Rich and Delicious! It was a visceral experience. Bob’s hooks are vibrant and ever present. The album drops on Halloween. If you haven’t been paying attention to GBV’s recent run, here’s a good re-entry point. -TH
Guided By Voices' New 2025 Album Thick Rich and Delicious on LP.
Robert Pollard: “I’m a student of hooks. That perfect combination of a lyric and a chord pattern that gives you that chill up the back of your spine.”
Thick Rich and Delicious overflows with hooks. It plays through front-to-back like a power pop classic, but don’t misconstrue pop for soft. The basic tracks were cut live and hot to tape and are presented with minimal overdubs. The band recorded in a Brooklyn studio at extreme volumes, conjuring the spontaneity and electric energy of their legendary live show. Complimenting Pollard’s lead vocals, harmonies are sung by Grammy-nominated Bobby Bare Jr and Pollard (aka “The Self-Righteous Bros”). The sound delivers on the album’s titular promise—thick, rich and delicious.
Pollard combines a new batch of songs with a basket of unrecorded gems dating back to the band’s nascent years. The chorus of “Oxford Talawanda” contains a never-used hook that Pollard has been singing for nearly his entire life.
With Thick Rich and Delicious, you can get that satisfaction.
OUT ON HALLOWEEN {BOB’S BIRTHDAY}
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Thick Rich and Delicious:
1. Babies and Gentlemen
2. (You Can't Go Back to) Oxford Talawanda
3. Phantasmagoric Upstarts
4. Our Man Syracuse
5. Mother John
6. Dance of the Picnic Ants
7. Xeno Urban
8. A Tribute to Beatle Bob
9. Replay
10. Siren
11. The Lighthouse Resurrection
12. A Glum Swoboda
13. Ozark Ivanho
14. Captain Kangaroo Won the War
