''Earth Man Blues'' is the 33rd studio album by American

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand in the early to mid-1980s. Although the term was originally used to describe rock music released through independent reco ...

band

Guided by Voices Guided by Voices is an American indie rock band formed in 1983 in Dayton, Ohio. It has made frequent personnel changes but always maintained the presence of principal songwriter Robert Pollard. The most well-known lineup of the band consisted o ...

, released by Guided by Voices, Inc. on April 30, 2021. The album is made up of unreleased songs that frontman

Robert Pollard Robert Ellsworth Pollard Jr. (born October 31, 1957) is an American singer and songwriter. He is the frontman and leader of indie rock band Guided by Voices, which he also the band’s only constant member. In addition to this, he has also rele ...

reworked to form a loose concept album about his childhood and has received positive reviews from critics.

Reception

''Earth Man Blues'' received positive reviews from critics noted at review aggregator

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

. It has a

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score of 76 out of 100, based on four reviews. Editors at

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

rated this album 4 out of 5 stars, with critic Fred Thomas writing that "despite this unending stream of new material, the band shows no signs of diluting creativity, and the 15 songs on Earth Man Blues find songwriter Bob Pollard exploring the weirder corners of his mind in between delivering more straightforward power pop bangers". Robin Ferris of ''

The Line of Best Fit ''The Line of Best Fit'' is an independent online magazine based in London, concentrating on new music. It publishes independent music reviews, features, interview, and media. Founded by Richard Thane in February 2007 and currently edited by P ...

'' rated ''Earth Man Blues'' a 5 out of 10, stating that the album "unfortunately doesn’t really do justice to either of these ambitions" of lo-fi music from their early career or polishd pop songcraft. Writing for ''

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'', Hubert Adjei-Kontoh rated this album a 6.5 out of 10, calling it "equally inconsistent and ingenious" and praising it for having "some of

’s most direct lyricism", with "slipshod and freewheeling" music. Brenna Erhlich of ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'' gave this release 4 out of 5 stars, stating that it "may be the power-pop heroes’ best album in decades" and that it "squarely hits all the marks that make Guided By Voices great", exhorting listeners to "put this record on and see how long it takes to utter your first joyful expletive". In ''The Spill Magazine'', Kirsten Innes gave this release 4 out of 5, calling it "an album of tremendous depth" with several genre changes that display creative freedom and confidence in the band's sound.

Track listing

All songs written by

. #"Made Man" – 1:22 #"The Disconnected Citizen" – 3:12 #"The Batman Sees the Ball" – 3:18 #"Dirty Kid School" – 2:56 #"Trust Them Now" – 2:21 #"Lights Out in Memphis (Egypt)" – 5:41 #"Free Agents" – 2:00 #"Sunshine Girl Hello" – 2:25 #"Wave Starter" – 1:34 #"Ant Repellent" – 2:36 #"Margaret Middle School" – 1:10 #"I Bet Hippy" – 2:30 #"Test Pilot" – 1:30 #"How Can a Plumb Be Perfected?" – 2:59 #"Child's Play" – 1:39

Personnel

Guided by Voices * Bobby Bare Jr. – guitar, backing vocals *

Doug Gillard Douglas Scott Gillard (born December 23, 1965) is an American guitarist and songwriter. He has been a member of major indie pop and punk bands, most notably Guided by Voices, Nada Surf, Bambi Kino, Death of Samantha, and Cobra Verde. Early ...

– guitar, backing vocals * Kevin March – drums, backing vocals *

– lead vocals, guitar, cover art, layout *Mark Shue – bass guitar, backing vocals Additional personnel *Travis Harrison – mixing,

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stat ...

*Ray Ketchem – drum

engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...

*Joe Patterson – artwork, layout *Jeff Powell – mastering for

vinyl LP The LP (from long playing or long play) is an analog sound storage medium, specifically a phonograph record format characterized by: a speed of rpm; a 12- or 10-inch (30- or 25-cm) diameter; use of the "microgroove" groove specificati ...

edition *Jamal Ruhe – mastering *Vince Williams – artwork

References

External links

Entry in the Guided by Voices Database
* * {{Authority control 2020s concept albums 2021 albums Guided by Voices albums Power pop albums by American artists

Reception

Track listing

Personnel

See also

References

External links