EPS Ohio reunites Robert Pollard with long time lead guitarist
Doug Gillard, which came about after Doug replaced Nick Mitchell
for the second half of the 2016 Guided By Voices tour.
Doug was lead guitarist in GBV from 1997 to 2004 and played
on six of the bands albums and three albums with Bob,
and this being the fourth.
Yeah I loved those albums like “Speak Kindly of Your Volunteer Fire Department”,
but “Starting Point of the Royal Cyclopean” is Flawless.
EPS Ohio consist of Bob and Doug along with current GBV bassist,
Mark Shue and drummer Travis Harrison who worked on the production
along with Nick Mitchell.
The album is very consistent without any of the weirdness,
not putting down the weird stuff, I love Circus Devils.
But this is the kind of GBV album you can give to a friend
with more mainstream rock taste.
It plays like a 70’s album, but of course better.
Song for song it’s a much better than say, “Do The Collapse”,
without having to compromise by adding cheesy keyboards
and heavy production.
The album has a lot of great pop/rock numbers
including the two singles which were released before the album,
“Lithuanian Bombshells” and “Royal Cyclopian”, both which GBV is
performing on their latest tour.
The great thing about this album is good as the singles are,
there are a lot of other tracks on the album,
that just scream “single”, especially, “Intercourse Fashion”,
the album opener, “A Much Needed Shot In The Arm” and
“Miss Hospital '93” which in the early 70’s could have been
a AM Top 40 hit.
On songs “The Ticket Who Rallied” and the closer
“Grand Beach Finale” Doug gets to rock out, Excellent.
All in all this is an amazing album that no self respecting
Guided By voices fan should be with out.
Great for the person you want to introduce to the world of
GBV and Robert Pollard |
