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The latest Guided by Voices album is the band’s thirty-fifth full-length LP, and second of 2021 – not counting the record that the same lineup released under the moniker Cub Scout Bowling Pins this summer. The most notable difference between It’s Not Them… and GBV’s recent run of albums is found in the record’s more ambitious arrangements – several of which incorporate strings and/or horns. These flourishes make for an intriguing complement to Robert Pollard’s songwriting, perhaps signaling potential avenues for GBV to pursue as the project approaches its fortieth anniversary.

It wasn’t my intention for the “current incarnation” albums to all be bunched relatively-closely together, but in a way it seems appropriate. The present lineup’s stability may only stretch back to the tour for 2016’s Please Be Honest, but that’s practically an eternity for a band whose continually-revolving door of musicians is a significant part of its legacy. That stability has turned the present version of GBV into a touring and recording dynamo, one that shows absolutely no sign of slowing down anytime soon. It also gives their recent releases a sense of being part of a collective body of work. While most of these records have an identifiable “thing” – Zeppelin Over China is the sprawling one, Sweating the Plague is the prog-y one, Warp and Woof is the collage-like one – they are ultimately united by both their proximity of release and consistent quality; none of them come close to challenging the group’s mid-nineties peak, nor are any outright duds.

This year’s Earth Man Blues keeps that streak of consistency alive. To be certain, it will not supplant Propeller, but its sharp popcraft and burly production settle into a satisfying equilibrium. Today’s Guided by Voices are a well-oiled machine – a seasoned group of craftsmen content to ply their trade in forty-minute increments, two to three times a year. It’s easy to take them for granted after all these years, but it’s always nice to hear from them.