No sooner does Robert Pollard and Co. present with their best album in ages, Halloween 2025's Thick Rich and Delicious, now they foist one even better! Flummoxed by 21 albums in a decade, it's been like snow in Saskatchewan instead of Jamaica-but a new seam in Rapid Robert's mine has truly cracked open. One typically top tune is titled "We Outlast Them All," but that's not the point. Like Alien Lanes without snip-pets, this is rumbling Tommy Who-ish rock where the songs feel like lost (rolled) gold from The Action, Creation, S.F. Sorrow Pretty Things, and Ogden's Nut Gone Flake Small Faces, with some Soft Boys and Document R.E.M. too. ("MITCH EASTER's garage" rates a mention."). It's sure dense 'n' heavy hot riffing guitar rock, giving DOUG GILLARD and BOBBY Bare Jr. chances to sink their gnashing teeth in. "Advance Without Dropping" might be their best '20s song to date (a show-opener for sure), "Arthur Square" booms, and "When You're My Clown (Nothing Happens)" is another of their colossal closers. Suggestion: Pretend they have made two, not 45 albums. It's a new birth of freedom. (guidedbyvoices.bandcamp.com)