30 years ago, MAGNET named Guided By Voices’ Alien Lanes the best album of 1995. While, for a lot of indie-music fans, that record was the entry point into the wonderful world of Robert Pollard, it was already GBV’s eighth LP. Since then, Pollard and Co. have, despite two hiatuses, released a staggering 35 more full-lengths. And that doesn’t include the prodigious number of records Pollard has put out either solo or with side projects.
Although it’s more work than we’re capable of to determine just how many different songs Pollard has officially released in his lifetime, it’s upward of 2,500. While the quantity is staggering—and in a category all by itself—the quality of Pollard’s work is often lost in the conversation because of the sheer volume of music he issues. Two years ago, a MAGNET writer compiled a list of the 500 best GBV-related songs, and while even being responsible for the amount of music that could fill a list that big is a phenomenal achievement, some fan favorites didn’t even make the cut. As any GBV diehard knows, ranking the band’s best songs (or albums) is always a fluid situation. Not only is the back catalog daunting and overwhelming, Pollard just keeps cranking out new music. (GBV has released 16 albums in the past seven years alone; by comparison, that’s more LPs than U2 has issued in four-and-a-half decades.)
On October 31, Guided By Voices dropped Thick Rich And Delicious, an instant classic that ranks in the top 10 of the band’s full-lengths and contains at least eight songs that will undoubtably make our next top-500 list. As such, MAGNET has chosen Thick Rich And Delicious as the best album of 2025.
We recently caught up with the Guided By Voices frontman for a rare interview. The 68-year-old Pollard discussed Thick Rich And Delicious, his visual art and the 44th GBV album, due in the spring.
—Eric T. Miller
I’ve had a copy of Thick Rich And Delicious since June, so I have gotten to live with it for a while. I had a couple initial impressions of it that have stayed the same since. First, I think it’s the best GBV album in more than two decades. Second, I think these songs would sound amazing live, like that’s how they were meant to be heard. How do you feel Thick Rich And Delicious stacks up to previous GBV albums? And do you plan on doing any live dates or tour anymore at all?
Thanks. Yeah, we made a record that would translate better to a live performance more so than anything we’ve done as far as cranking out three-minute power-pop songs is concerned immediately following a decision not to play live anymore. Doesn’t seem to make sense. But that’s OK because even though I feel too old to get onstage doesn’t mean a record has to sound old or more mature or however you want to describe it. Records and ideas are ageless. Bodies and legs are not. Thanks for the compliment, although it’s difficult for me to assess or compare an album without a certain period of hindsight. I think it’s a really fun rock album.
I think the sign of a great album is that people have different opinions about what the best song on it is. From talking to others, that seems to be the case with Thick Rich And Delicious. People have told me their favorite is “Lucy’s World” or “(You Can’t Go Back To) Oxford Talawanda” or “Our Man Syracuse” or “Phantasmagoric Upstarts” or “Captain Kangaroo Won The War” or “Replay.” Personally, I think “A Tribute To Beatle Bob” ranks pretty high within the whole GBV catalog. Do you have a favorite song on it?
I personally like “Captain Kangaroo Won The War.” It just feels like a really strong, powerful finale. A great one to wrap up the record. I dig “Lucy’s World” a lot, too, and I agree with you on the Beatle Bob song. I’ve had that title around for a long time and finally figured out what to do with it.
You’re the most prolific songwriter in the history of rock ‘n’ roll and have seemingly no problem constantly writing tons of new material. What made you decide to rework, reimagine, renovate and/or revamp older works for numerous tracks on Thick Rich And Delicious?
I drove out to the West Coast with (drummer) Kevin (March) and (bassist) Mark (Shue) on our final tour, and I just had a lot of time to think about old songs and ideas that never got fleshed out or received what I considered to being given the proper time and treatment. Every day—all day—between cities, I would just knock around ideas and write them in my notebook. I would let Mark and Kevin know what I was coming up with, and they seemed delighted. So that motivated me to see the project through to fruition.
(Guitarist) Doug (Gillard), Kevin and Mark recorded all of these songs live together in Brooklyn, then you added vocals, and (guitarist) Bobby (Bare Jr.) added some backing vocals. How did that process differ from previous recent GBV albums?
We’ve always recorded in a lot of different ways. I used to be more involved in the playing of instruments in the studio. But in recent times, I’ve decided to leave that up to the professionals. I still play on some things sporadically. Those guys just said they’d like to try a more “live in the studio” approach. I think they have a stronger rapport and are tighter. We’ve decided to go with that approach again on the next one, which we’re almost finished recording. We may lose a little sound diversity overall with this approach, but I don’t know. I think it makes a stronger, meatier record in the long run. It’s an experiment in itself, and we get back to: Why would we stop playing live and make these kind of records? I don’t know. We do what we wanna do.
There are three instrumental tracks on Thick Rich And Delicious—fully realized songs, not snippets. What made you choose to do that?
I sat down and recorded a bunch of riffs and ideas for intros and outros to see if I could attach some of them to various songs to make them a little more adventurous. Some of them I thought were cool enough to be included on the record as instrumentals, and I think it ended up being a pretty good idea, because to me, they seem like brief interludes or intermissions by a house band or marching band or something in a circus, you know like The Rolling Stones Rock And Roll Circus. It gives the listener a little bit of a lighthearted break. I think it also sets up different sections of the album. They make the album more fun, and it was intended to be more fun. Less serious than usual.
As far as I can tell, this is the first GBV album released on your birthday. Was there a reason for that?
No. I don’t think about that. As a matter of fact, I thought I had released a lot of albums on my birthday. I think it was always Circus Devils albums that we put out on my birthday.
So many bands are doing tours for specific anniversaries of albums, playing them in their entirety. You have never done that. Although I did see GBV play Under The Bushes Under The Stars almost straight through back in 1996 before the album had even come out. Would you ever consider doing something like, say, a 30th anniversary tour next year for Under The Bushes? Or something along those lines with a different album in the future? I’m sure that kind of thing would sell a ton of tickets.
I’ve been asked but never really considered it. Yeah, we’ve played entire albums before or right around the release date. We did that with Universal Truths And Cycles. I know people who would love for us to do an anniversary kind of thing. I don’t think that’s gonna happen, but never say never, I guess.
You mentioned a new GBV album. I read an interview with (GBV producer) Travis Harrison from October, and he said it doesn’t stray too far from Thick Rich And Delicious. Where does progress stand with the making of the next GBV LP, and do you agree with Travis’ assessment?
Yeah, the new one, which is called Lost In The Sun, is along the same lines with the exception that there is absolutely nothing borrowed from the past. They’re all completely new songs. They seem to be somewhat tied together in a conceptual way. I’ve done that sort of thing before with albums like Same Place The Fly Got Smashed and Mag Earwhig. It’s even gonna have another fake band photo on the back cover that I got from a 1971 college yearbook. Twelve songs, all between two-and-a-half and four minutes.
You have an art show coming up in June and volume 22 of EAT in the works? What can you tell us about each of them? How much time do you spend on your visual art compared to writing songs?
Yeah, the show is in Highland Park, up above Detroit and it’s at a space run by a really cool guy named Mike Ross, who’s also a really good artist. He’s being assisted by Trevor Naud, who’s done a lot of photography for us. It’s gonna have more than 100 pieces with stuff from the past, a few things that I’ve recombined and a lot of new things from EAT Vol. 22, which will come out simultaneously with Lost In The Sun right before the show at the end of May. The show’s called Loud because of the sheer volume of works and the fact that there are a lot of bright, colorful pieces. Also there’s gonna be an entire wall of fake 45s and LP covers. That’s gonna look psychotic.
Do you have any favorite albums, movies, TV shows, books, etc., from 2025 you would like to mention?
I like the new Vince Gilligan series Pluribus. The Guillermo del Toro Frankenstein. P.T. Anderson’s One Battle After Another. I’m basically just rereading the Carlos Castaneda books. There’s like 10 of them. I read a Delmore Schwartz and a James Dean biography.
What else do you have on tap for 2026 and beyond?
I don’t know. Make more albums. Write more songs. Make more collages. Spend time with my wife Sarah and my cat Nicky. Try to find a cool bar in Dayton somewhere.
—photo for MAGNET by Alexzandra Roy
