Whenever Guided By Voices hit the road again, they’ll have three new albums to tour on: Surrender Your Poppy Field, Mirrored Aztec, and, now, Styles We Paid For. The band’s third album of 2020 drops December 11th, but you can hear the first single, “Mr. Child,” now.
“Mr. Child” is a poppy rocker about the titular character, a fun-loving Peter Pan who “sees a rainbow/sees no rain” — whose M.O. is to “roll with the punches and remain a child.” Still, there’s something ominous about the forever-boy, who is “long and limber,” “always rolling,” and “erasing numbers.”
“I finished the demos on February 29th and sent them to the band. I was planning on an all-analog album entitled Before Computers,” frontman Robert Pollard told Rolling Stone. “The pandemic obviously changed our recording plans and ironically it was all recorded digitally on computers. The band members recorded their parts in isolation in five different states.” Doug Gillard contributed guitars from New York, Kevin March drummed in New Jersey, Mark Shue wielded his bass in Virginia, Bobby Bare Jr. played guitar in Tennessee, and Pollard recorded his vocals in Ohio.
