Universe Room
2025 studio album by Guided by Voices
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Universe Room is the forty-first studio album released by American indie rock band Guided by Voices, released on February 7, 2025, through their own Guided By Voices Inc. label.[1] It was preceded by the singles "Fly Religion" (November 22, 2024), "The Great Man" (December 13, 2024), "Dawn Believes" (January 22, 2025), and "Elfin Flower with Knees" (January 24, 2025).
| Universe Room | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | February 7, 2025 | |||
| Length | 39:32 | |||
| Label | Guided By Voices Inc. | |||
| Producer | Travis Harrison | |||
| Guided by Voices chronology | ||||
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Background
On November 19, 2024, the band announced the release of their new studio album, along with the first single "Fly Religion".[1] Of the new album, frontman Robert Pollard said:
I wanted to create, hopefully, an experience, kind of a wild ride, where the listener would want to hear it multiple times in order to grasp all the sections and fields of sound to discover something new with each listen. I wanted to get a little more sonic diversity for this album. So I asked each member of the band to record all the instruments for one song and I did three songs myself.[2]
Critical reception
| Aggregate scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 71/100[3] |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [4] |
| The Arts Desk | [5] |
Universe Room was met with "generally favorable" reviews from critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, this release received an average score of 71, based on 6 reviews.[3]
Track listing
All songs written by Robert Pollard.
- "Driving Time" – 2:05
- "I Couldn't See the Light" – 2:55
- "I Will Be a Monk" – 1:30
- "The Great Man" – 2:03
- "Clearly Aware" – 2:36
- "Dawn Believes" – 3:26
- "Play Shadows" – 2:00
- "Fly Religion" – 2:25
- "The Well Known Soldier" – 1:07
- "Hers Purple" – 1:05
- "Independent Animal" – 1:13
- "19th Man to Fly an Airplane" – 3:41
- "Elfin Flower with Knees" – 2:20
- "Fran Cisco" – 3:07
- "Aluminum Stingray Girl" – 2:19
- "Aesop Dreamed of Lions" – 3:07
- "Everybody's a Star" – 2:23
Personnel
Guided by Voices
- Robert Pollard – lead vocals, artwork, layout
- Doug Gillard – electric guitar, strings
- Bobby Bare Jr. – electric guitar
- Mark Shue – electric bass guitar
- Kevin March – drums
Additional contributors
- Travis Harrison – production, floor tom on "Aluminum Stingray Girl"
- Ray Ketchem – additional drum recording
- Beckham Bare – piano on "Hers Purple"