Guided by Voices - Half Smiles of the Decomposed

After twenty-odd years and twenty-odd release, this is the final album by Ohio's famed geniuses. It's their most serious and mature record in years, more akin to those recorded in the mid-90s than the most recent releases. At the same time, it's influenced by both American and British mid-60s chime-pop pointing out the intricate interweaving guitar lines, the stunning wordplay, the vastly melancholic and somehow still uplifting tone, the impeccably tossed-off phrasing, and the stately plump rhthm section. Elegiac and remorseful a jewel of a farewell.

1) Everybody Thinks I'm a Raincloud (When I'm Not Looking)
2) Sleep Over Jack
3) Girls of Wild Strawberries
4) Gonna Never Have to Die
5) Window of My World
6) The Closets of Henry
7) Tour Guide at the Winston Churchill Memorial
8) Asia Minor
9) Sons of Apollo
10) Sing for Your Meat
11) Asphyxiated Circle
12) A Second Spurt of Growth
13) (S)Mothering and Coaching
14) Huffman Prairie Flying Field