As part of some of
Guided by Voices' most celebrated phases,
Tobin Sprout's warmly earnest songwriting served as a clear-headed counterpoint to his bandmate
Robert Pollard's 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
Sprout's gentle voice gliding along dusty, folk-tinged tunes. Songs like the minor-key lament of "On Golden Rivers" recall
Neil Young's 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.
Sprout's songwriting loses none of its distinctive warmth while exploring territory that's new to him. "Every Sweet Soul" is a spare tune of acoustic guitar and layered vocal harmonies similar in their plaintive beauty to
Sprout's 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
Sprout's 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 he's 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.