Empty Horses

As part of some of Guided by Voices most celebrated phases, Tobin Sprouts warmly earnest songwriting served as a clear-headed counterpoint to his bandmate Robert Pollards wild-eyed tangents about UFOs and fantastical characters. With an extensive solo career made up of sporadically released projects, Sprout delved deeper into his side of that coin, making full albums of the kind of reflective and warm indie rock tunes he got limited airtime with in GBV. With Empty Horses, Sprout turns a new corner. Instead of lo-fi pop miniatures, the ten songs here are subdued Americana numbers that find Sprouts gentle voice gliding along dusty, folk-tinged tunes. Songs like the minor-key lament of On Golden Rivers recall Neil Youngs quiet introspection on albums like Harvest or After the Gold Rush, mixed with world-weary perspectives of songwriters like Townes Van Zandt or Gillian Welch. The Man I Used to Know is one of the more lively arrangements on Empty Horses, fleshing out its dark instrumental with tremolo-heavy electric guitar and sturdy percussion. Sprouts songwriting loses none of its distinctive warmth while exploring territory thats new to him. Every Sweet Soul is a spare tune of acoustic guitar and layered vocal harmonies similar in their plaintive beauty to Sprouts earliest GBV contributions. He takes a riskier approach on the title track, with vocals that sound vaguely like an impersonation of Johnny Cash. There are still traces of Sprouts earlier style that carry over to his Americana tunes. The album is compact, with many songs not making it much past the two-minute mark. While the production values are more polished, he still sneaks in some fuzzy guitar and overdriven vocals on All in My Sleep, perhaps as an anchor to the approach hes spent the 30 years before this album perfecting. Empty Horses is an unexpected shift from a firmly established songwriter. Sprout retains the best parts of his musical personality while evolving into unfamiliar places, learning some new tricks, and spinning an excellent set of new songs in the process. ~ Fred Thomas