It's Not Them. It Couldn't Be Them. It Is Them!

It's Not Them. It Couldn't Be Them. It Is Them! is the 34th studio album by American indie rock band Guided by Voices, released on October 22, 2021. It has received positive reviews from critics.^[4]

Reception

It's Not Them. It Couldn't Be Them. It Is Them! received positive reviews from critics noted at review aggregator Metacritic. It has a weighted average score of 80 out of 100, based on four reviews.^[4] Editors at AllMusic rated this album 4 out of 5 stars and named it the Best of 2021,^[5] with critic Mark Deming writing that the music is reminiscent of Herb Alpert and Arthur Lee and characterizing this work as "excellent" and "superior work from a great rock band".^[3] In Mojo, this release received 4 out of 5 stars, with critic James McNair praising Robert Pollard's ability to combine various music genres.^[1] Paul Rowe of PopMatters characterizes this release as "a surprising [album] chock-full of bizarre, unpredictable moves and power-pop rippers that keep listeners guessing along the way", rating it 8 out of 10.^[2] A 7 out of 10 came from Uncut's Jim Wirth who notes that while the band's "base template" remains the same, many songs have different musical instruments or genres to ensure that the music is "never indifferent, never quite the same".^[6]

Track listing

All songs written by Robert Pollard.

"Spanish Coin" – 3:20
"High in the Rain" – 3:39
"Dance of Gurus" – 2:37
"Flying Without a License" – 2:47
"Psycho House" – 2:47
"Maintenance Man of the Haunted House" – 2:43
"I Share a Rhythm" – 2:02
"Razor Bug" – 1:06
"I Wanna Monkey" – 2:49
"Cherub and the Great Child Actor" – 2:06
"Black and White Eyes in a Prism" – 4:39
"People Need Holes" – 2:43
"The Bell Gets Out of the Way" – 2:27
"Chain Gang Island" – 3:51
"My (Limited) Engagement" – 2:06

Personnel

Guided by Voices

Bobby Bare Jr. – guitar, backing vocals
Doug Gillard – guitar, backing vocals, horn and string arrangement
Kevin March – drums, backing vocals
Robert Pollard – lead vocals, guitar, cover concept, layout
Mark Shue – bass guitar, backing vocals

Additional personnel

Travis Harrison – mixing, production
Ray Ketchem – drum engineering
Trevor Naud – Mark Shue photography
Joe Patterson – layout, back cover treatment and photography
Jeff Powell – mastering for vinyl LP edition
Jamal Ruhe – mastering

References

^ ^a ^b ^c McNair, James (December 2021). Bulley, Jenny (ed.). "Filter Albums". Mojo Filter. Mojo. No. 337. p. 84. ISSN 1351-0193.
^ ^a ^b Rowe, Paul (October 19, 2021). "Guided by Voices: It's Not Them. It Couldn't Be Them". PopMatters. Retrieved June 14, 2023.
^ ^a ^b Deming, Mark (n.d.). "Guided by Voices – It's Not Them. It Couldn't Be Them. It Is Them!". AllMusic. RhythmOne. Retrieved June 14, 2023.
^ ^a ^b "It's Not Them. It Couldn't Be Them. It Is Them! by Guided by Voices". Metacritic. Fandom, Inc. Retrieved June 14, 2023.
^ "Favorite Indie Pop & Indie Rock Albums | AllMusic 2021 in Review". AllMusic. RhythmOne. n.d. Retrieved June 14, 2023.
^ Wirth, Jim (December 2021). "New Albums". Uncut. p. 26. ISSN 1368-0722.

External links

Entry in the Guided by Voices Database
It's Not Them. It Couldn't Be Them. It Is Them! at Discogs (list of releases)
It's Not Them. It Couldn't Be Them. It Is Them! at MusicBrainz (list of releases)
Review from Spectrum Culture

v t e Guided by Voices
Robert Pollard Doug Gillard Mark Shue Bobby Bare Jr. Kevin March Tobin Sprout Mitch Mitchell Greg Demos Kevin Fennell Jim Macpherson James Greer Discography
Studio albums	Devil Between My Toes (1987) Sandbox (1987) Self-Inflicted Aerial Nostalgia (1989) Same Place the Fly Got Smashed (1990) Propeller (1992) Vampire on Titus (1993) Bee Thousand (1994) Alien Lanes (1995) Under the Bushes Under the Stars (1996) Tonics & Twisted Chasers (1996) Mag Earwhig! (1997) Do the Collapse (1999) Isolation Drills (2001) Universal Truths and Cycles (2002) Earthquake Glue (2003) Half Smiles of the Decomposed (2004) Let's Go Eat the Factory (2012) Class Clown Spots a UFO (2012) The Bears for Lunch (2012) English Little League (2013) Motivational Jumpsuit (2014) Cool Planet (2014) Please Be Honest (2016) August by Cake (2017) How Do You Spell Heaven (2017) Space Gun (2018) Zeppelin Over China (2019) Warp and Woof (2019) Sweating the Plague (2019) Surrender Your Poppy Field (2020) Mirrored Aztec (2020) Styles We Paid For (2020) Earth Man Blues (2021) It's Not Them. It Couldn't Be Them. It Is Them! (2021) Crystal Nuns Cathedral (2022) Tremblers and Goggles by Rank (2022) La La Land (2023) Welshpool Frillies (2023) Nowhere to Go but Up (2023)
EPs	Forever Since Breakfast (1986) The Grand Hour (1993) Static Airplane Jive (1993) Get Out of My Stations (1994) Fast Japanese Spin Cycle (1994) Clown Prince of the Menthol Trailer (1994) I Am a Scientist (1994) Tigerbomb (1995) Sunfish Holy Breakfast (1996) Plantations of Pale Pink (1996) Wish in One Hand… (1997) Plugs for the Program (1999) Hold on Hope (2000) Dayton, Ohio–19 Something and 5 (2000) Daredevil Stamp Collector (2001) The Pipe Dreams of Instant Prince Whippet (2002) Down by the Racetrack (2013) Wine Cork Stonehenge (2018) 100 Dougs (2018) 1901 Acid Rock (2019) Umlaut Over the Ozone (2019)
Live albums	Live from Austin, TX (2007)
Compilation albums	The Best of Guided by Voices: Human Amusements at Hourly Rates (2003) Crickets: Best of the Fading Captain Series 1999–2007 (2007) Scalping the Guru (2022)
Box sets	Box (1995) Suitcase: Failed Experiments and Trashed Aircraft (2000) Hardcore UFOs: Revelations, Epiphanies and Fast Food in the Western Hemisphere (2003) Suitcase 2: American Superdream Wow (2005) Suitcase 3: Up We Go Now (2009) Suitcase 4: Captain Kangaroo Won the War (2015)
Robert Pollard solo albums	Not in My Airforce (1996) Waved Out (1998) Kid Marine (1999) Motel of Fools (2003) Fiction Man (2004) Relaxation of the Asshole (2005) From a Compound Eye (2006) Normal Happiness (2006) Silverfish Trivia (2007) Standard Gargoyle Decisions (2007) Coast to Coast Carpet of Love (2007) Superman Was a Rocker (2008) Weatherman and Skin Goddess (2008) Robert Pollard Is Off to Business (2008) The Crawling Distance (2009) Elephant Jokes (2009) We All Got Out of the Army (2010) Moses on a Snail (2010) Space City Kicks (2011) Lord of the Birdcage (2011) Mouseman Cloud (2012) Jack Sells the Cow (2012) Honey Locust Honky Tonk (2013) Blazing Gentlemen (2013) Faulty Superheroes (2015) Of Course You Are (2016)
Tobin Sprout albums	Carnival Boy (1996) Moonflower Plastic (1997) Let's Welcome the Circus People (1999) Lost Planets & Phantom Voices (2003) The Bluebirds of Happiness Tried to Land on My Shoulder (2010) The Universe & Me (2017)
Airport 5 albums	Tower in the Fountain of Sparks (2001) Life Starts Here (2002)
Boston Spaceships albums	Brown Submarine (2008) The Planets are Blasted (2009) Zero to 99 (2009) Our Cubehouse Still Rocks (2010) Let It Beard (2011)
Lifeguards and Doug Gillard albums	Speak Kindly of Your Volunteer Fire Department (1999) Mist King Urth (2003) Waving at the Astronauts (2011)
Robert Pollard side projects	In Shop We Build Electric Chairs: Professional Music by Nightwalker 1984–1993 (1999) Big Trouble (2000) Choreographed Man of War (2001) Calling Zero (2002) Blues and Boogie Shoes (2006)
Circus Devils albums	Ringworm Interiors (2001) The Harold Pig Memorial (2002) Pinball Mars (2004) Five (2005) Sgt. Disco (2007) Ataxia (2008) Gringo (2009) Mother Skinny (2010) Capsized! (2011) When Machines Attack (2013) My Mind Has Seen the White Trick (2013) Escape (2014) Stomping Grounds (2015) Laughs Last (2017)

This page was last edited on 11 July 2023, at 00:14