In a sense, making a Guided by Voices essential tracks list is redundant: the band's mastermind, Robert Pollard, already made one for you.

It came in the form of 2003's The Best of Guided By Voices: Human Amusements at Hourly Rates — a mixtape-style program where Pollard seamlessly toggles between the band's eras.

Lo-fi, hi-fi, mid-fi: it's all Pollard, and it all flows together. "14 Cheerleader Coldfront," his crackly, acoustic 1992 duet with his old foil, Tobin Sprout, segues seamlessly into the gripping, aerodynamic "Twilight Campfighter" — from the slickly produced Isolation Drills.

There's just one unavoidable problem: it stops at 2003, because that's when it came out. The idiosyncratic, touching, wacko, and feverishly productive Ohio rock band would release one more album, 2004's Half Smiles of the Decomposed, before temporarily pulling the plug.

Since then, there have been two additional, distinct eras. At the top of the 2010s, Pollard brought back some classic-era members; across six albums, they produced a number of solid songs, like "Class Clown Spots a UFO" and "Flunky Minnows."

Arguably more consequential has been their current lineup — a mix of old and new faces, in guitarists Bobby Bare Jr. and Doug Gillard, bassist Mark Shue and drummer Kevin March. From this run of albums has come cuts that stand up to the classics, like "My Future in Barcelona" and "Mr. Child."

Guided by Voices continue to forge ahead with their 38th album, Whirlpool Frillies, released July 21. A return to live-to-tape recording after at least half a dozen executed remotely, the new album features numerous sluggers worth diehards' and neophytes' time, like "Meet the Star," "Awake Man," "Seedling," and "Radioactive Pigeons."

Safe to say, there are a lot more coming. Before (or after) you digest Whirlpool Frillies, take a quick run through 10 of Guided by Voices' most powerful songs — solo and side projects notwithstanding.

"Over The Neptune / Mesh Gear Fox" (Propeller, 1992)

If you're new to Guided by Voices, perhaps this is a helpful digest: Imagine the rock pantheon from the Beatles to post-punk, boiled into one amalgam. Then, strip away the canonization and glitz and mystique; place the music at eye level.

That's sort of what Propeller, the album that began their '90s ascent, sounds like. The triumphal "Over the Neptune / Mesh Gear Fox" sounds like the Who recorded a couple of Tommy tunes in your garden shed.

The scrappy two-parter crescendos with an underdog call to arms, outlining emotional territory the band would soon plumb to astonishing effect: "I'm much greater than you think!"

"Tractor Rape Chain" (Bee Thousand, 1994)

Most with even a cursory interest in Guided by Voices will point you toward three mid-'90s albums as go-tos: Bee Thousand, Alien Lanes and Under the Bushes Under the Stars.

Over the years, Bee Thousand has become increasingly agreed upon as the one, and there's a certain amount of truth to that. While it's less consistent than the other two, a handful of songs slice as deep as a Guided by Voices song possibly can.

One is "Peep Hole," a brief, heartrending bash on an acoustic guitar about loving someone with a screw loose: another is "Tractor Rape Chain." Don't let the bizarre, quasi-offensive title throw you: think of the trails the titular machinery leaves in a field.

But "Tractor Rape Chain" isn't simply about one path through life, but two in parallel — and how they eventually deviate and depart from each other. That makes "Tractor Rape Chain" universal: everyone with a pulse can raise a glass to this stone classic, and believe every word.

"Game of Pricks" (Alien Lanes, 1995)

While Bee Thousand seems to be the desert island disc for many fans, "Game of Pricks" is arguably GBV's signature song. (Pollard seems to think so, too: over the course of at least one concert, they've played it twice.)

The most popular version of "Game of Pricks" tends to be the one from their Tigerbomb EP, which features two oldies recorded anew in a professional studio. With due respect to that one, seek out the rawer, more concise Alien Lanes version.

Either way, though, Pollard’s lyrics are fantastic — full of mistrust and self-flagellation and catharsis. ("I'll climb up on your house/ Weep to water the trees" is one of Pollard's most moving images.) But it's their connection to the melody that will truly make your head spin.

Through the tape-recorder hiss, "Game of Pricks" is like every song on Meet the Beatles rolled into one, and shot out of a cannon into your solar plexus. Pollard has written many more developed songs, but never one this degree of distilled impact

"Motor Away" (Alien Lanes, 1995)

Like "Game of Pricks," a more refined version of "Motor Away" is floating around: again, go for the Alien Lanes version.

Ever barreling forward, this GBV staple is best communed with when you're young and on the precipice of a fresh start — but its philosophical ambiguity remains potent at any age.

In "Motor Away," you're not hurtling toward the "chance of a lifetime"; "you can free yourself from the chance of a lifetime." Furthermore, "You can lie to yourself that it's the chance of a lifetime." 

By considering the life left behind and the life pursued on the same moral plane, Pollard renders "Motor Away" totally bracing and moving. Anytime you find yourself in a situation that seems intractable, let the kicker pop to mind: "Why don't you just drive away?"

"The Official Ironmen Rally Song" (Under the Bushes Under the Stars, 1996)

We are all the ironmen. Much like "A Salty Salute," the opener on Alien Lanes, "The Official Ironmen Rally Song" feels like a chest-beating anthem for the GBV devout. (In this regard, "Don't Stop Now," a summation of their message of tenacity and courage, deserves a mention too; it's left off this list solely for space.)

Like so many other songs on this list, "The Official Ironmen Rally Song" must be experienced live for the full effect — Pollard's octave jump on the chorus maintains the ability to project Miller Lite out of cans and all over your clothing.

But even on record, "The Official Ironmen Rally Song" is indestructible — it's like a reliable old car whose engine always turns over. Whenever you feel out of sorts, let it offer a perennial, life-affirming reminder: "You are free: champions officially."

"Twilight Campfighter" (Isolation Drills, 2001)

After 1999's Do the Collapse — lumpy yet slick, produced by Ric Ocasek, reputationally still up in the air — GBV eased into high fidelity more naturally with 2001's Isolation Drills.

Fleet and aerodynamic, Isolation Drills was GBV's second album with crucial guitarist Doug Gillard, who's back with the band today — numerous lineup reshufflings later.

Who is the Twilight Campfighter? Who knows, but it seems to be an imposing, godlike, healing figure: "You build your fires into an open wound/ You want us to feel better/ On these darker trails/ With light revealing holy grails."

But the primeval mystery's the point — as with so many Pollard compositions. As "Twilight Campfighter" swells and swells, and light increasingly pierces its blanket of melancholy, the effect is spellbinding — especially during the final chorus, when Gillard and fellow guitarist Nate Farley absolutely lay into those chords.

"The Best of Jill Hives" (Earthquake Glue, 2003)

Here's to Pollard, the vocal melodist: could he have come up with a more clever, creative part over such a simple chord change?

And here's to Pollard, the lyricist: "Paid up, weathered and type/ Clad in gladstone watch him go/ Swimming 'neath the microscope/ Hello lonely bless the nation" is an mind-bending and evocative opening line.

By his telling, Pollard got the idea for "The Best of Jill Hives" while getting his muffler fixed. 

"Jill Hives is not a real person," he told an interviewer in 2004. "I was sitting in the waiting room with some people watching television so I played this game I play sometimes when I can't quite hear what people are saying, I'll start writing what I think they're saying."

The soap opera "Days of Our Lives" came onscreen. And with that, a song was born.

"Kid on a Ladder" (Please Be Honest, 2016)

After six solid albums with the "so-called classic lineup" that played on Bee Thousand, Alien Lanes and the like, Pollard again dissolved the band, then brought the project back two years later with a necessary reset: Please Be Honest.

On that album, Pollard didn't just write every song, as usual; he also played every instrument. After the arena-rocking opener "My Zodiac Companion" comes "Kid on a Ladder," perhaps his most dazzling one-or-two-minute wonder since "Game of Pricks."

Over a scratchy guitar and 4/4 pump-and-slam, Pollard casually tosses ribbons of gorgeous melody in the air: in 1 minute and 47 seconds, it's all over. He's on to 13 more strange, beguiling songs from there, but you'll want to hear "Kid on a Ladder" over and over again.

"My Future in Barcelona" (Zeppelin Over China, 2019)

Like Paul McCartney conceiving the epochal "Yesterday" and "Let it Be" in his dreams, some of Pollard's greatest songs have arisen from intentional mishearings and decontextualizations.

And "The Best of Jill Hives" wasn't the only one: "My Future in Barcelona" came from "the future of Barcelona," vis-à-vis one televised soccer team or another.

Part of the essence of Guided by Voices is that magic is everywhere, in the most quotidian of places. And from that random snippet of commentary, Pollard wrote a masterpiece — one that marries the wonder of "Jill Hives" to the heft and majesty of "Twilight Campfighter."

From Pollard's pen — and lungs — a city known for sunbathing and sight-seeing seems like a fantastical, awesome realm. "Tested, invested waters/ Move local as you know," he sings in the pre-chorus. "When the idea of fast can be/ Excruciatingly slow/ Excruciatingly so." 

That's what he sang about in "Motor Away," and returns to here: when your surroundings aren't cutting it, forge fearlessly ahead.

"Alex Bell" (Tremblers and Goggles By Rank, 2022)

In five minutes, Pollard and company breeze through more ideas on "Alex Bell" than some bands come up with in their entire careers. The seesaw between drumless breaks and charging verses compounds the drama, and the the track builds to a gonzo, unpredictable climax.

This tune from Tremblers and Goggles by Rank — which at press time, was three albums ago, despite being released last year — was named after the last names of Big Star members: Alex Chilton and Chris Bell.

But despite news outlets' characterization of "Alex Bell" as a "tribute to Big Star," it's not really that. It's a poignant meditation on time, memory and loss that spiritually dovetails with those power pop heroes' rocky run, and both men's tragic passing.

"I see you around every time there's a ghost in town," Pollard sings during the galumphing outro. Then it slams to a halt. Which turns out to be a fake-out. There's another. Finally, a skyward power chord concludes this spectacular song.

With Guided by Voices, something unexpectedly moving and galvanizing is always around the corner — and even after any number of masterpieces, it always feels like Pollard's finest hour remains ahead of him.

Songbook: A Guide To Every Album By Guided By Voices' Current Lineup — So Far