Guiding Light: Fear on My Own Time 12"

Guiding Light: Fear on My Own Time 12” (Post Present Medium) I wrote about the demo tape from Texas’s Guiding Light back in 2024, noting that it was perfect for “someone like me who loves the Raincoats and Mecht Mensch in equal measure.” Now Guiding Light is back with their vinyl debut (unless you count the vinyl pressing of the tape) and they continue to make some of the freshest, most exciting punk music around. Fear on My Own Time starts with a total banger, “Shackled by Lust,” which has the catchiest chorus Guiding Light has penned thus far; there’s no way you won’t be singing “you wanna lie and lie and lie and lie and lie” by the end of your first listen (and for every listen thereafter). While that big chorus on “Shackled by Lust” pulls things in the direction of 80s UK indie-pop, the rest of the record is full of the spiky, off-kilter punk we remember from that first cassette. Guiding Light features the same guitarist as Mujeres Podridas, and if that band didn’t already convince you of his virtuosity, this LP should seal the deal. Most songs are built around these complex, serpentine guitar lines that sound like Johnny Marr if he did acid with the Meat Puppets and baked in the southwestern sun for a couple of weeks. The rhythm section keeps everything upbeat and energetic, and while the tempos are fast, Guiding Light seems unconcerned with the kind of heaviness we usually expect from punk rock. And then the vocals (which, as with the tape, alternate between English and German) mostly shout lines dense with words, but occasionally slip into a crystalline melody. Other than the four-minute closing track, “Liebe Im Kapitalistischen Reich,” song lengths mostly hover around the two-minute mark, meaning this 8-song album zips by before you know what hit you. An excellent and singular album that I expect to see on many “Best of 2026” lists when the time comes.