3
3.8 - Sounds like flipping through AM radio in a dream. A really enjoyable listen that I’ll probably need to return to fully appreciate.
Alien Lanes is the eighth full-length album by American lo-fi band Guided by Voices, released on April 4, 1995.The album was GBV's first release with Matador Records. According to James Greer's book Guided by Voices: A Brief History: Twenty-One Years of Hunting Accidents in the Forests of Rock and Roll the advance for the record was close to a hundred thousand dollars, one of the more expensive deals in Matador's history. In contrast to the lucrative deal, Greer mentions that "The cost for recording Alien Lanes, if you leave out the beer, was about ten dollars."
3.8 - Sounds like flipping through AM radio in a dream. A really enjoyable listen that I’ll probably need to return to fully appreciate.
God I love this record. Little snippets of pop rock, lo-fi goodness. Robert Pollard and company create little worlds for you to live in sonically and then are immediately transported from one song to the next at a blistering pace. There are some moments on this record that remind me of The Beach Boys, the Beatles and Big Star but only if they had a 4 track recorder set up in their high school bedroom. It’s a phenomenal listen and only rivaled by Bee Thousand in their discography. Favorite song(s): Game of Pricks and Motor Away (I had to include two) Least favorite song: Hit
I don't really know how I feel about this album. In some ways I really like it, but my overall impression is just...meh. Things I like about it: Very British Invasion meets early punk vibes. Honestly there are a lot of songs on this album that caught my attention (with 28 songs I expected at least a few would grab me). They're Not Witches, Game of Pricks, The Ugly Vision, Closer You Are, Striped White Jets, and Alright are ones that really stood out in my mind. The cover art is super cool. Things I don't like: I cannot stand the mix. I get what they were going for with the dirty, fuzzy sound but I fucking HATE it. The guitar tones on this album are fantastic but I feel like that gets so muddy and hidden in the mix. This would easily be a 3 or 4 star album for me if it were a little "cleaner" sounding. The length of the songs is a little off putting at times. It felt liek as soon as I started to really vibe with a song, it ended. I don't think every song needs to be 4+ minutes long, but I found myself wishing that many of the songs were at least slightly longer. 2 out of 5 stars. I found it hard to look past the mix quality which really made it difficult for me to enjoy a lot of the album. I read the entry for this album in the book and frankly I don't really understand why it belongs on the list? It's not bad but doesn't strike me as particularly outstanding either.
Sounds like a weird demo tape. 17 second songs, many of them sounding unfinished.
Hell yeah! What, last song already?!
A songwriting expo if there ever was one. I love this lofi 90s rock sound and this album gives me a lot of it. Works better as a whole album listen versus just hearing individual tracks, given the short length of the songs. "Motor Away" fills me with an odd bliss every time I hear it.
This is very swag album the length of some songs bothers me but most of the time it doesn’t matter that they’re short because it means there’s a lot of changes in the album and it keeps it very interesting. There is definitely some filler on here but I mean I did expect that from a 28 song album. I enjoyed this and will probably return to this. 7,3/10
I think the best thing about this album is how generous it is. Tons of material, little running more than a minute thirty. If you don't like one, it's gone and the next one is there. And there is much more to like than dislike.
Huh, I was a bit nonplussed by this at first but had a vague sense it'd grow on me if I gave it a chance. Sure enough, third listen, properly starting to appreciate it. Feels a bit like the album equivalent of a Rick & Morty inter-dimensional cable episode... Even the snoring track makes sense in that context! Fave track - "As We Go Up, We Go Down". Poppy niceness.
Such lovely, lively lo-fi. GBV keeps excellent company, too; that the streamers go from last cut of the record to an excellent cut from Yo La Tengo (a most egregious exclusion from this esteemed index) tells you what you need to know. Their brand new record (fall 2022) suggests how close RP has stayed to the vision, though perhaps not always to the optimal effect.
Guided by Voices are a band that favour the quantity over quality approach which usually makes their albums a bit hard to listen to in full but this is a great album and somehow manages to stay cohesive despite having many short songs. The songs are catchy and fun while never overstaying their welcome.
Now this is what this 1,001 Albums project is all about! I would never have listened to this album, but it’s excellent. I take a lot of inspiration from this album. It’s a bunch of short little minimalist songs, some of them less than a minute, and the album as a whole is still excellent, thriving on the power of melody, songwriting, and the performances, rather than production quality or complexity.
I am inspired by the looseness of the band generally and this album specifically. It doesn't feel over thought or over worked, the short songs feel like brief little journal entries. Feels like a feat to achieve 28 actual songs in 41 minutes. I also like the sound of Robert Pollard's voice, it sounds silky or something.
It's surprising what a difference it makes when a musician knows someone will actually be hearing his work. After 1994's charmingly sloppy Bee Thousand gained Guided By Voices a nationwide cult following (instead of the local cult following they were accustomed to), 1995's Alien Lanes found Robert Pollard and his partners in hard pop cleaning up their act a bit. For the most part, Alien Lanes isn't radically different from Bee Thousand -- it was primarily recorded on a four-track cassette machine (and sounds like it), and Guided By Voices was still a garage band with more in the way of inspiration than chops. But the musicians have put a bit more care and focus into their performance on this set; the playing is tighter and sharper, and the band plays toward their strengths, pushing their occasional sloppiness into a harder, more rock-oriented direction.
This one is complicated. I have tried to dip into the GBV back catalog before, and have been hindered by two factors; 1) the massive size of their catalog (35 albums, plus 22 solo Robert Pollard albums, plus all the miscellaneous stuff), and 2) the critical praise. I mean, look at this review of Alien Lanes from Sputnik Music (https://www.sputnikmusic.com/review/34199/Guided-by-Voices-Alien-Lanes/) "The genius of this is that the album is a bombardment of staggeringly good songs, with nothing less than the staggeringly good anywhere to be found. That they managed to preserve so much brilliance, without giving it a vacuum-packed feel and managing to do the thinking justice with their delivery in such a small space of time, is astounding. And what’s more – oh, so much more – is that everyone involved has an absolute ball doing it." This is just bullshit on the plain face of it. There are, in fairness, a couple of pretty good songs on this record; Game of Pricks, Motorway, Little Whirl. But there is some awful throw-away shit as well; Hit, Gold Hick, etc. And so badly recorded. This is where this gets complicated for me. I like a grungy, lo-fi aesthetic. I love that this is an album of sensible duration (41 minutes) with short songs (28 songs in 41 minutes!). Pollard can write a good tune when he tries, and the band can crank out some passable rock and roll. But, and this is a big 'but', some editing would help. Does EVERYTHING need to go on tape, and does it all need to be released? And I am looking at the GBV fanboys here: does every note need to be praised to the heavens? Really, this is the demo tape for a potentially good album. A decent producer would listen to this, identify the good songs, send the band into rehearsals to work up some arrangements, which could then be captured for posterity. How good would this album be if you picked the best 12-15 songs and recorded a passable 2 1/2 or 3 minute version of each, once it had been thought through a little? All I can hear is wasted potential. I really feel for Bob Ludwig, who is the unsung hero of this album. I bet Bob was pretty surprised when the record company asked him to try and make a silk purse out of the shitty tapes he was handed. I did a quick A/B comparison with Bee Thousand, the GBV album immediately prior, and you can really hear the difference that great mastering has made. He did a pretty good job with what he was given. I also want to point out that embracing a lo-fi aesthetic doesn't justify cover art as deliberately ugly as this. This is just bad. I think this album infuriates me because it could have been great, but it deliberately chooses to be shit at every turn. And the way that every hiss and sonic fart is hailed by the Cult of GBV as a work of goddamn genius just gives me the irrits. I'm giving this 2.5 stars for being an album that shows some promise, rounded down for the annoying fanboys.
noiccceeeeeeeeeeeeee
Enjoyed this and completely new to me
28 songs in 41 minutes. Most of them very catchy and with high energy. Was surprised at how much i liked this one.
me gustó mucho, breve, punk
Very weird
Disarm the settlers The new drunk drivers Have hoisted the flag We are with you in your anger - A salty salute
** Lo-fi se pojavio tijekom pojave američke underground scene 1980-ih kao sirovi, bučni stil Indie Rocka. Njegovo ime potječe od upotrebe opreme za proizvodnju i snimanje low-fidelitya, što mu daje nečist i izrazito trošan zvuk. ** "The Club is Open." ovaj album, općenito lo-fi/slacker rock kako su počeli nazivat ovaj žanr mi je prirasto srcu, zavolio sam ga pravo te mi je "lofilia" plejlista za ovakve stvari poput ovog albuma i "Bee Thousand". Mnogo klasika još mogu izvući iz rukava ovoga kalibra low-fidelity-a, ali nadam se da će biti na 1001...Album koji možeš slušati na vrućini, onako, sirovo, nedovršeno, prljavo?, bučno, odvojeno od svega. Nije za svakoga, to znam, ali eto drago mi je da je meni nešto ni blizu savršenog - jako blizu savršenoga. Jednostavno, ali djeluje. Ovako, album ima stvarno dosta pjesama, slažem se, kratke su, u tom je čar, baš zato i treba imat puno dobrih pjesama, a u ovom slučaju nabrajam klasike (IMO) lo-fi glazbe -> Game of Pricks, My Valuable Hunting Knife, A Salty Salute, As We Go Up, We Go Down, Watch Me Jumpstart, Blimps Go 90 (ovo je <3) i Always Crush Me. Album nije čista desetka, više je 9/10, nekad jednostavno još nešto malo fali ili ima nečeg viška, ali ako se pusti u jednom cugu sve, ima tu svoju toplinu koju volim. Još nešta da kažem, uskoro dolazi vrijeme za moju "lofiliju" i radujem se tome. :)
Pretty great stuff. Reminds me of a lot of demo tracks from other bands. I hear some early Weezer in here. I hear some early Mountain Goats. Short, sweet tracks and a short, sweet album. I like it!
Best lo-fi album?
VG
Bangers
Ik kan gaan proberen uit te leggen waarom dit zo briljant is, maar voor de mensen die dit voor het eerst horen zou dat een totaal onbegrijpelijk verhaal zijn. Dus laat die eenen en tweeen maar komen, ik knal er alvast 5 tegenaan! En Jurrien: kom d'r maar in!
Als ik dit hoor en mijn ogen sluit ben ik met Arie weer bij GBV in de Melkweg ergens halverwege de jaren 90. Dit album is echt de soundtrack van mijn jeugd, terwijl ik 'm hoogstwaarschijnlijk niet te pruimen zou vinden als ik 'm nu voor het eerst op zou zetten ;)
4.5 - end of the album kinda dragged a bit for me
What a great album. Sometimes I wish the songs were a bit longer, but it definitely is a great listen front to back. 4.5/5
I love eclectic albums like these; a ton of short songs in a normal amount of time. These songs are great and offer a variety of material thrown at you quickly.
Very good album! For some reason I really enjoy that it does sound like it’s coming through on a shitty speaker! Love As We Go Up, We Go Down, Game of Pricks, Motor Away and heard some really good ones for the first time, greatly enjoyed this album and glad I finally gave it a full listen!
I'VE ENTERED THE GAME OF PRICKS
I'm from Southwest Ohio so this is a big one for me. In my opinion GBV is Ohio''s greatest musical export of all time. They are basically Robert Pollard, and anyone he feels like playing with at the time, but this album is the "classic lineup" at their peak. Many people claim "Bee Thousand" to be their masterpiece, and I love that one too, but I feel like this one is a far more consistent album (no "Kicker of Elves" here). Robert Pollard is a melodic genius, pure and simple. He is so naturally talented that he is constantly overflowing with musical ideas. He is so unbelievably prolific, his discography is staggering. Not only with GBV, but all his solo stuff and side projects as well. He seems to live in a state of constant creative inspiration, and it's largely very consistent in quality. But it's definitely an acquired taste. I was first introduced to them on a mixtape from an older friend who was in college while I was still in high school. I found their truly DIY aesthetic inspiring. It's like there were so many ideas spilling out of him, they had to record them in the quickest, most immediate way possible, without the technical delays of studios. They were able to capture pure, raw creativity as it happened. It showed you what was possible with a four track and seemingly boundless creativity. This album could never have been made in a studio. It would have snuffed out all the energy. Sort of like what happened on their later TVT records. There are many songs I love on this album, that mean a great deal to me personally, but perhaps my favorite GBV track of all time is "Motor Away." It's one of the very few songs that has ever made me cry. And not just a little tear rolling down my cheek either. That song encapsulates a very particular feeling of making a big change in your life, to have it turn out wrong, and then trying to carry on, and convince yourself that you're fine, but you're not. It's a feeling many of us have experienced, but no one has ever articulated it in a more concentrated and potent way than on that song. I have had that feeling more than once in my life, and this song was there for me in a way that at once devastated and comforted me. It would definitely be used in the soundtrack to my life.
Pop… Wunderbar!
As anal probes go, aliens do it the best. They get right in there and penetrate to the point of bleeding. If I wasn't so turned on, I'd be furious. More, please.
I've heard so much about GBV but haven't listened much at all. I can really see the appeal after hearing this though. The songs are stripped to the absolute bare minimum - no studio embellishments, not one second of padding or note that isn't strictly necessary. Just catchy, lofi hooks. I dig it.
Tim said it best, the short tracks is the MOVE. my attention span is fried. Plus these guys have a reallly sick sound. damn the more i listen the more i love it....so glad to have something i really like on this list again. the snoring guy in ex supermodel LOLOL
A diamond in the rough is the best way to describe this album. Hidden beneath the low quality recording style are very meticulously written catchy pop and indie rock songs. Each song is unique and has its own identity on top of that. Fave songs: As we go up we go down, Game of Pricks
Low-fi, indie brilliance
This is pure magic, what a melodic richness. The crappy production and the shortness of the songs only seem to add to the miracle.
I expected Bee Thousand instead of Alien Lanes, but always slightly preferred Alien Lanes, for me their best (and most consistent) album: great sound, great songs from both Robbert Pollard and Tobin Sprout (but I only know 10 albums or so from the period up to Do The Collapse and not the hundreds of albums they made afterwards). I like the length of the songs, probably the album would be less interesting / listenable if the production was not so lo-fi or if the songs were proper songs instead of short sketches. Out of the 28 songs, I would only skip the annoying 1-minute song Ex-SuperModel scote: 9/10
Definitely lo-fi and even somewhat abrasive sound. I feel like Guided by Voices sounds like 50 other bands that I like, and I'm a sucker for lo-fi rock records. There is something charming about it. It's all at once familiar but unique, I feel like like this was a blueprint for the entire Elephant 6 collective.
Definitely going to have to revisit!
no muy bueno
Impressive, good concept of many short straight to the point songs
Songs are too short, but cool album
Really enjoyed this. Would have liked to hear full songs!
Listened to a little
Eigentlich wirklich gut. Die idee scheint aber zu sein dass man viele Lieder hat, von denen ein paar verzichtbar und ein paar lieber länger wären
Great. Full of introspection.
Lofi mid 90s indie. Think I'd been all over this if I'd heard it back in the day
This was fun.
The album is a series of very short songs, the tunes all are similar early 90s rock, sounds like Brit-rock or even hints of Sloan in a way. The songs all being very short seem to have a chorus or hook they're written around, and then move onto the next one, similar to the Minutemen. Good tunes, album keeps things moving and it was all fairly consistent/enjoyable. The downside is no song really stands out, they're over so quick. It all just blends into a generic 90s rock session as a result.
The length of the songs was off putting. It felt like as soon as I started to really enjoy a song, it ended. I just wish a lot of the songs were longer. Anyway there are a lot of songs on this album that caught my attention. Solid album 4/5
Didn't know this guy before, but the sound is very familiar. Grew up with a lot of bands in this wheel house, some of my favourites, so I can see this album deserves the recognition.
This was really enjoyable. Definitely one to listen to as a whole though
Very good album. Some insanely great melodies on here. 7-8/10
Really good garage rock album. A lot of short, fun tracks.
A bloated album of punchy songs, and I love the edge here, even if it misses (looking at you Hit)
pretty good album - 8/10 it’s nice the songs don’t last very long because some of them are a little annoying favorite song is probably The Ugly Vision, it had a nice lofi/grungey vibe, like Neutral Milk Hotel meets Nirvana, I liked it
A kad si ujutro misliš “neda mi se slušat dns nek bude nešt šta znam i onda ti generira album koji znaš i onak “DA TO ĆU SLUŠAT” znaš da je dobar
Bajo moj pjesme su prekratke. Uživiš se u neku i puf, nema više. Cover je odbojan i jako me naljutio. Ali unatoč svemu ljubav pobjeđuje i ja ću se vraćati na ovaj album!
Love the Lo-Fi aesthetic
The band after my heart and attention span
What a cool album, I really liked it and I enjoyed it almost all the way through
Muito bom.
This is decent background music. Nothing spectacular and nothing terrible. Nice and steady.
Lo-fi yet full
actually quite good the snoring bothered me
Cleaners From Venus meets the Replacements. What’s not to like?
quite good
Dope 4
7/10. A couple pretty good songs, lot more pretty mediocre ones, but even a mediocre song can be interesting for a minute.
lots of short songs.
listened to again lo fi grunge
Youll completely forget youre listening to music 4?
The fact that it’s got so many tracks makes it feel much longer than it is but the album is very enjoyable 4/5.
I absolutely love this beautiful mess of an album and I love more every time I listen to it. Top tracks: Evil Speakers, They're Not Witches, (I Wanna Be A) Dumbcharger, Pimple Zoo, and Always Crush Me.
This is the kind of album that makes it clear why this is "albums you must hear" and not "the best albums." I'm glad I listened to this once and I will not likely choose to listen again. But I've got respect for musicians who say, "I've got an idea for a song," and then just record a song that's 50 seconds long --- no padding, no filler, no long solos, just...here's the song. Lyrics don't need to rhyme or make sense --- the whole album felt very stream-of-consciousness and I appreciated that. The songier songs sounded like 60s British invasion covered by a grunge band and even some of the vocals sounded a bit like Paul McCartney.
I lack useful skepticism when enough thrown material sticks to a wall, at least when that material tastes good already. Perhaps objectively, though, Guided By Voices maneuvers around the common unfulfilled feeling mostly, and sets up the Alien Lanes tracklist as a kind of history. I found that the psych moments worked a lot better than the meditations on a single chord, but every song felt like part of the whole. A little exhausting, even, two-minutes-a-song aside.
In just 41 minutes, we get spammed with 28 songs that take on so many different styles, influenced by 60s pop (Beatlesesque, psychedelia, sunshine) and their contemporaries in power pop. It's a unique sound and concept that feels like a strange mix of poorly recorded pop songs, which is exactly what it is. The jumps are sometimes smooth but sometimes sudden. They execute the lo-fi style incredibly well to the point that I feel the album would be far worse if not for the high distortion and muddled distant vocals. There're a ton of strange and cool sounds in here. You can tell they swapped what instrument everyone played, and I've heard they did things like drumming on trash lids and slapping Pollard's back to get a vibrato (sounds like "Chicken Blows"?). There are plenty of standout songs that I'll for sure throw in my playlists as a short intermission. Some catchy, some mesmerizing. But for the most part, this is an experience to be enjoyed all the way through. I started listing my favorite songs but the list ended up being over half the album and I'm not even sure there's a single song I wouldn't put on that list if I thought about it hard enough.
cool!
This was a nice surprise. A bit different to have so many shorter songs, a bit punky in that respect. I recognised some of the songs I think. Will definitely give it another go. Reminded me of a combo of Tame Impala and some of the more psych stuff of the Beatles actually at times
I really like this album. I've actually been listening to it a bit lately already because I've always been interested in Guided By Voices but was intimidated by their massive catalog. I asked some coworkers who are into GBV on recommendations for which album to start with and they pointed me towards 'Alien Lanes'. For being a 28-track album, it breezes by, probably because it's also only 41 minutes. This can be both a positive and a negative though cause there are really catchy songs I wish would go on longer or would develop a bit more. But I also have to admire that they're willing to take an amazing melody or concept and not wear it out by forcing it into a 5 minute track (the longest song is under 3 min at 2:58), just make it a 90 second song and go onto the next one. I can always just listen to those ones again if I want more. Standout Tracks: A Salty Salute, Watch Me Jumpstart, As We Go Up We Go Down, Game of Pricks, Closer You Are, My Valuable Hunting Knife, King and Caroline, Ex-Supermodel, Blimps Go 90, Little Whirl, My Son Cool, Alright
It was interesting, a little different with the song lengths and everything. Some songs did feel like they could be at least 3 minutes long and some shorter. Very experimental with what kind of sounds it can play with, but not the best thing to exist.
enjoyable
This is cool.
Very nice record. I like the short pop-infused songs very much :)
Wenn man hier die besten Lieder heraus nimmt und die etwas dicker produziert, hast du hier ein 5er Album und ein fettes Brett, dass evtl. sogar in den Charts vertreten wäre. Aber das wäre dann nicht GBV :) Muss man honorieren. Gibt von mir knarzige 4 Punkte.
Really enjoyed this album
Lo-Fi pop perfection that crams 28 songs in just over 40 minutes. Sure, the production needs some work but that's the charm of lo-fi. There's pop hooks, rock mini-masterpieces mashed together with experiments; also, if you don't like a song there's no need to worry as another will be along in literally a minute. Best Tracks: A Salty Salute; A Good Flying Bird; My Vaulable Hunting Knife
Very nice!! Måst lyssna mer gbv
Classic indie rock! They way the short songs blend into each other makes for a uniquely cohesive album, and the songs on their own are quirky yet have a deft pop sensibility. Do listen!
Goat album ja ville kinda lyssna de pånytt men i gueeessss ja borde lyssna andra listalbum
Surprised by the brevity of the songs. Overall I enjoy it but I'd say it's more of a vibe than a few specific songs that stick out. Curious to listen to the other "popular" album.
It's hard to say what I really think overall of this album as it seems to just truck on song after song with no one song ever making it past the 3 minute mark, and the shortest of them coming in at only 18 seconds. At 28 tracks and just over 41 minutes in length, it's a bit overwhelming at first glance and on first listen, most songs give you just enough to be satisfied but I can't help but wish the track list were trimmed down and with the remaining tracks being expanded upon. Personal highlights include "Strawdogs", "Little Whirl", "My Son Cool", "A Salty Salute", "They're Not Witches", "Game of Pricks" and "Motor Away". Overall, this is still an incredibly enjoyable album, and it goes by so quickly that you may as well listen to it all the way through, you'll be done before you know it anyways.
I really like the style of this band. It's sort of loose and raucous, a bit power poppy, a nice fuzzy guitar sound, catchy tunes. My first thought on this album was that it was a lot of little fragments, but after listening a couple of times I see that it's cohesive and keeps my interest throughout. 4 stars.
Honestly, I wasn't super excited when I say this album, since I've given Bee Thousand a shot a couple of times and don't really find it to my taste. I like the lofi style, it's just that the songs go by so fast that it feels like you don't get any time to sit with them. This album felt a lot more digestible. It still gets through a wide variety of songs, and each song feels like it has a good amount of room to breathe 4/5
Look, I'm an old punk so there's a lot here that rings my bells. The lo-fi production, the self-aware without being self indulgent lyrics, the super short track times. It all works for me. Also, can we just talk about the advance for a moment? You boys got $100,000 advance and then turned in this album? That takes some balls. I hope you spent that money well, because there's no way you recouped it with this album. That said, I really really enjoyed it. Pretty great for what it is.