While working on Guided by Voices‘ 44th studio album, Speculation and Gossip, frontman Robert Pollard developed an obsession with Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Pollard has also been immersed in surrealism and dada, fitting genres for a musician and visual artist who has a knack for bending words and images to his will — either via hallucinatory lyrics or collages that mesh realms both physical and meta. The first single off of the new album, “Designed for Use,” is a barreling, muscled track that turns a piece of mundane packaging copy into a motto: Pollard was designed to be a musician, to play “in most stereophonic atmospheres.” Trending Stories How Melanie C Learned to Embrace Sporty Spice Historic Brian Jones Letter Inviting Charlie Watts to Join Rolling Stones in 1962 Surfaces Anika Nilles on Her Rush Journey: ‘I Have No Ego, So I Play What’s Required’ Danny Masterson Loses Rape Conviction Appeal, Vows to Take Fight to State Supreme Court While the band’s last album, Crawlspace of the Pantheon, was recorded in the studio with the full band, GBV went back to the old ways for number 44.
I also wanted it to be much brighter, less heavy in overall tone than Crawlspace. On this one I just gave them genre references. Post punk, pop, prog, psych or combinations.” Heading into 2027, Pollard caps off a year of artistic success — including his largest-ever show of his collages — and, in addition to Speculation, has a few other surprises on the horizon.
It’s an addiction,” he says.
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