- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
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Universal Truths and Cycles shows the band has lost touch with the most important thing outside producers brought to their TVT albums -- someone to help pick, choose, and sequence Robert Pollard's over-abundance of songs.
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Alternative PressThe band have gelled into Pollard's best yet, and it's their brief forays into prog-rock complexity that make the record stand out within the GBV catalog. [Jul 2002, p.82]
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BlenderThe best songs have concise melodies and a likeable punch. The worst just sound like sketches, riffs a more traditionally ambitious group would have discarded. [#8, p.116]
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Fans might finally have a proper companion to the arena-in-my-closet-rock of '95's Alien Lanes.
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Universal Truths and Cycles has got something for everyone who's ever liked Guided By Voices even a little.
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You remember Bee Thousand, Alien Lanes, Mag Earwhig! ? Well, those days are here again.
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MagnetAmong the lot lie some stone-cold Pollard classics. [#55, p.76]
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MojoUniversal Truths is not as raw overall as GBV's earliest efforts, but it seems much closer to their wonderfully chaotic live sound than the last couple of records have. [July 2002, p.104]
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Is much, much better than a record made by chronically drunk middle-aged men has any right to be.
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GBV have made a record that should please any fan still listening.
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While it doesn't recapture the magic of the Sprout-era Guided by Voices records, Universal Truths and Cycles marks the return of some of the most sorely missed qualities of early Guided by Voices: strong vocal melodies and refreshingly atypical song structures.
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Universal Truths and Cycles is not only Guided By Voices strongest record in some time, it is also the best rock record this year.
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Q MagazineThis may not be their greatest album to date, but Universal Truths and Cycles is a charming record that shows the Pollard production line remains in good order. [July 2002, p.114]
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GBV are self-produced once again and simultaneously looser and sharper as a result.
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SpinOf course it's nothing new, but Guided by Voices' precision messes are their own reward. [Aug 2002, p.110]
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No more fancy studios, no more high priced producers; this is truly GBV as nature intended -- reckless, hook-laden and drunk as hell.
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When Pollard is at his best, as he often is here, it's the rest of the world that sounds out of step.
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UncutReally rather magnificent, in its way. [Jul 2002, p.107]