Crawlspace Of The Pantheon

Guided By Voices — 2026

“Crawlspace Of The Pantheon feels familiar in all the right ways while still finding room to surprise.”

Guided by Voices albums are like Doritos: you can’t stop at just one. You also know what you’re going to get, but that’s not a bad thing. Some might be a weird shape, every once in a while you get one with some extra flavor dust, but they consistently hit the spot. Crawlspace Of The Pantheon, the band’s 44th album, is a GBV record with a little extra flavor dust—it’s not wildly different than any other GBV album (especially of the last decade), but it tickles the tastebuds a little more noticeably than the last few preceding chips you consumed. OK, enough with the Dorito metaphor (for now)—Robert Pollard’s songwriting and singing is strong throughout, Doug Gillard’s guitar tones give each track a unique feel, and it seems like the rest of the band (Mark Shue, Kevin March, Bobby Bare Jr., and producer Travis Harrison) are having a lot of fun bringing Pollard’s ideas to life.

Crawlspace “only” contains 12 tracks, but there are often enough ideas for multiple songs packed into each one. “Out With A Theory” is a good example: starting with just Bob’s vocals and a meaty electric guitar, the rest of the band kicks in about halfway through, followed by some string touches that give it an epic, prog-like vibe. “We Outlast Them All,” one of the album’s singles, is classic Pollardian power-pop, all catchy hooks and punchy riffs, while “A Grand Ceremonial Jester” nods to Sgt. Pepper-style psych pop, distilling a kaleidoscopic carnival into a minute and eighteen seconds. The closing track, “When You’re My Clown (Nothing Happens),” is another highlight containing some of Pollard’s best melodies in recent memory, closing out the proceedings on a high note.

Like any GBV record, this one feels inspired by most of the usual suspects (The Who, Cheap Trick, Wire, etc.). Some of the beefier guitar-heavy tracks are indebted to power-pop crunchers like The Raspberries and Big Star, while some of the more melodic moments call to mind The Beatles and The Kinks (i.e. more usual suspects).

To some Crawlspace Of The Pantheon will be just another Dorito in the party-sized bag that is the New Classic Lineup’s output since August By Cake nearly a decade ago. While that perception isn’t necessarily wrong, Crawlspace Of The Pantheon is a particularly tasty collection of songs that shows the band hasn’t lost any steam since putting live shows on the back burner for the foreseeable future. While fans would love to see the band back on stage, Crawlspace Of The Pantheon should keep them satisfied until the next GBV album gets pulled out of the bag.