Here we have another wineskin full of great Guided By Voices songs to listen to, recorded in a proper studio - Cyberteknics in Dayton, Ohio - for the first time since the reunion, There's some unusually consistent and consistently awesome production on 'Cool Planet', thanks to the array of vintage equipment on offer at Cyberteknics.
'Cool Planet' has a weighty crunch that will lay you flat, which is perhaps also in part due to the addition of ex-late-version GBV tub-thumper Kevin March on drums (after a short but lively internecine skirmish that left some people happier than others), Pollard has talked in recent months about having refined his approach to songwriting (as if that was a thing that needed to happen) and the tunes he's written for 'Cool Planet' stack up against the best he's ever done, including the hard hitting title track, which is just begging to be played live, Guitarist Tobin Sprout steps up with (among others) a Bowie-esque number ("Psychotic Crush") and a Beatle-esque number ("All American Boy").