It's Not Them. It Couldn't Be Them. It Is Them! is the 34th studio album by American indie rock band Guided by Voices, released on October 22, 2021. It has received positive reviews from critics.[4]
Reception
It's Not Them. It Couldn't Be Them. It Is Them! received positive reviews from critics noted at review aggregator Metacritic. It has a weighted average score of 80 out of 100, based on four reviews.[4] Editors at AllMusic rated this album 4 out of 5 stars and named it the Best of 2021,[5] with critic Mark Deming writing that the music is reminiscent of Herb Alpert and Arthur Lee and characterizing this work as "excellent" and "superior work from a great rock band".[3] In Mojo, this release received 4 out of 5 stars, with critic James McNair praising Robert Pollard's ability to combine various music genres.[1] Paul Rowe of PopMatters characterizes this release as "a surprising [album] chock-full of bizarre, unpredictable moves and power-pop rippers that keep listeners guessing along the way", rating it 8 out of 10.[2] A 7 out of 10 came from Uncut's Jim Wirth who notes that while the band's "base template" remains the same, many songs have different musical instruments or genres to ensure that the music is "never indifferent, never quite the same".[6]
