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

First there's an acoustic guitar, and then a string section comes in, topped off by some trumpet work that screams 1966 Herb Alpert. Is it possible Robert Pollard just started listening to Love's 1967 masterpiece Forever Changes? Whether it's homage or coincidence, Pollard and Guided by Voices circa 2021 kick off their second album of the year, It's Not Them. It Couldn't Be Them. It Is Them!, by channeling Arthur Lee with the song "Spanish Coin." Even more surprising than the similarity to that L.A. psychedelic landmark is how beautifully they pull it off. Even by the busy standards of this hardworking act, Guided by Voices have been startlingly prolific since Pollard revived the band in 2017, and It's Not Them is the 11th full-length LP they've released in the space of five years. And like nearly all of those albums, it's excellent; this is the strongest and most capable edition of GbV to date, and while Pollard used to be chronically incapable of telling his great songs from his OK s