Alien Lanes

There are some great ideas here, but a lot of the songs end too quickly, or are just okay. Still a very interesting album. Low 4.

28 tracks within 41 minutes, does that make a coherent album? Mwoah, for me this doesn't really work. I like songs where you can grow into, get related to. These some sort of soundbites doesn't do that.

It's ok

I had high hopes for this. I like the lo-fi aesthetic, and shorter simpler tracks. But this is a demo tape at best. Ideas of something that could become a track. Is someone snoring in the mix of one of the tracks? If so, I get it.

Samples before you have access to the full album

My boys!

That was fun. Well done Mr. Pollard.

Well today i learned that a scrapbook of indie music is enough for this list. No need to write a full song, just two chords, 30 seconds of lyrics and a garage. Reviews suggest this was “experimental” but just because The Beatles were experimental doesn’t mean you are when you copy them

28 songs over 41 minutes is an achievement in efficiency. Where can I get one of those Lennon pedals?

Feels more like a demo album. Some of it is decent enough. But nothing really sticks.

You guys going to finish that thought? No, moving on to the next one already? Okay well surely this will be a complete-- oh, no, the next song has started. Not really even giving us time to get a beat going but-- oh, next song again, okay, yeah, cool. 30 songs in a 44 minute album, okay, let's go I guess. I love short songs from time to time, but this is pushing it. Also think this was recorded on a dollar store microphone in a bathroom.

album number eight from lo-fi rock group guided by voices. this will be the first album released by the band with a brand new record label. despite the band's continuing success, lo-fi bands are insistent on keeping their humble and rough sound throughout their lifespans. and this one is no different. what's most noteworthy this time around are the amount of tracks. 28 tracks in only about 40 or so minutes, and a lot of songs are only about a minute or so long. this album sounds like if a famous '60s rock band had a cassette player, meth and a dream. it's quite the odd sound, and it will take a little bit for a lot of listeners to tolerate. i do find it interesting how the songwriting, like how it was approached... a lot of these songs are short because clearly they don't need to be any longer than they need to be, and i respect that point of view. do i want to give this album a 3 or a 4.... i think i might end up going for the former if only because this music is like mcdonald's sprite for your ears. it's very fuzzy. it's very... weird. and you might like it or you might not. and the more i sit and think about it, the more i'm like... totally unsure what to rank it on this list.

I like the sound, but the rapid fire songs one minute after another don’t give time for any one song to register.

Опять какая-то странная дичь. Альбом 40 минут - 24 песни. Слушать невозможно

Frustrating album because it felt like every time I was starting to get into a song it would end. Really liked the sound but because of that it felt like it didn't reach the highs it could have. 8/10

One minute tracks with only a refrain, perfect background for that coffee shop scene in your indie film project

not what i want

It’s interesting to have a bunch of bite-sized songs grouped together like this. Nothing overstays its welcome, but sometimes it doesn’t stay long enough.

It's interesting enough. Lo-fi is good, I just think it was too long and too short at the same time.

Some really compelling ideas in here, but most of the songs seem to be just that. Ideas.

I'm having a hard enough time to figure out why this album is recorded, let alone whites on the list.

Surprisingly liked this quite a bit. I figured i would end up with some kinda whispy whatever style indie stuff but this has some teeth. Its still a bit too whatever for my tastes but there is alot to be liked in here. Some riffs and just good musicianship that isnt always burried by effects. And the vocals, maybe in how they were recorded or treated, they give me some beatles vibes. I think its just one guy though. Could be wrong but anyways hes just good and fits in well with all the music. With all the effects and distortion I get a bit of dinosaur Jr or something of that ilk. Im just glad its the stone ages for this type of music. Thats what I tend to like. Modern stuff is so blase for me. There is always interesting stuff but its not at the surface. This just is what it is and take it ot leave it. Easy to take some and leave other seeing as there are nearly 30 tracks in 40 minutes. Don't like it? Wait a single minute. But there is alot here to like. Its just solid. Every little blemish can be swept away easily cause its on to the next thing at lightning speed. I had fun and maybe someday ill get to the other 7373884 guided by voices records. I have a good jumping off point with this record

5/10… indie rock / power pop / *1995

Really liked 2 of these songs but the rest can be recycled

Back to back mid punk albums... It's not super fun.

I listened to this album twice. The first time I thought my car speakers were broken or something. It sounds like you recorded the original album on cassette and then recorded that version on another cassette and then recorded that on another cassette and then.... this is like the eighth cassette. Cassette-ception. It seems like amazing little hiccups of indie rock, but that production, man.

Poorly recorded, poorly produced, poorly mastered lo-fi indie-rock bullshit.

The idea of an album having very short songs isn’t new, and it’s proved to showcase an artist’s ability to write something catchy and cohesive under such restraint. This album is very fragmented, and while I can appreciate the efforts, the content is not great.

Tää oli aika geneeristä vaihtoehto-rokkia. Soitto oli hyvää, mutta biisit liian samankaltaisia, tusinatavaraa.

this may be the GBV i’d use to make a new person get into them, but, they had an incredible run of fantastic albums from 1992-1998. it may be unfair to choose just one album, even one as great as this

Ну пролетело, дальше то че?

Vanskelig å rate, noen få skikkelige gode på denne, men mye ræl

Mye potensiale, egentlig mye kult og fint her, men det framstår jo så uferdig. Demoaktig. Tynn 3'er

4.5

Very strange. You can hear the songwriting talent but the tracks finish too quickly before they really make an impact. Like a demo tape that needs to be fleshed out. This guy needs a songwriting partner or a mentor

It’s like these guys found a bunch of Beatles demos and recorded them in their basement. There’s a lot of good stuff on here, Game of Pricks is the standout for me.

yikes

for an album so short this felt like an eternity

It's an okay album. All the songs are pretty short, so even the ones with good grooves are over fast. 2.5/5 Probably won't listen again

Cool album, lyder meget som den slags indie der blev populært 10 år senere

Rasmus core

Very lofi. Especially hated the song where that one guy snored throughout.

I tend to hate it when people immediately jump to the "why do I need to hear this before I die?" argument about any album they don’t like, or don’t understand – but there is a strong case to be made for this one. It’s rough and ready with a real lo-fi production. The whole album has a really awkward flow to it, where some songs stop before they even get going, and other songs cut in in a disjointed manner. So many songs have such little form to them that it's hard to connect with it. My key beef with this though, and the reason why I’m now jumping on the "why do I need to hear this?" bandwagon, is because so much of it is just utterly unremarkable. A lot of it just isn’t good enough or fleshed out enough (in my opinion) to put on a proper album. By the mid-way point this was rapidly losing any good will I had, and it became a bit of a slog by the end.

Musically I kinda like it - but it’s SO fucking irritating.

Very lo-fi. It's kind of like punk but slower and lo-fi. Really good album! The fact that it costed just $10 to make this album blows my mind! Usually albums are mad expensive! Great album!

It's interesting in that all the songs are so short, which is also my biggest issue. None of the songs develop, they just pop in and out then onto the next one. And there's so many of them, some of which didn't really need to be here. I wanted to like this, especially since I enjoy GBV's mid 2010's albums.

679/1001 2026.08.13 🌕🌕🌗🌑🌑

This is only on here because it's different and Game of Pricks was pretty popular. Different isn't always good though, 28 songs in 41 minutes is hard to pull off and they don't. It ends up feeling like unfinished demos, many either samey or just poor.

Might upgrade on relisten. A bit too scattered to (mentally) encapsulate cohesively in 1-2 listens.

When I opened the album and saw 28 songs I was expecting this to be a 3-hour marathon but it was only 41 minutes, which was also interesting. It's fine but the songs are so brief and unfinished I can't get any sort of storytelling or understanding of what they are trying to communicate. The snoring sounds in "Ex-Supermodel" were annoying. I did really like "Game of Pricks" though.

28 different half cocked demos of songs spread over 40 mins? No thanks. Bu the time anything started to get good, the track ended and it was on to the next. And by no means did every track even get good. There's probably a good 10 track album here if they fleshed out the best tracks instead of making whatever the hell this was. 2.25* rounded down to 2*

i like music that kind of sounds like shit, 3.5 stars

surprise like!

Dan said he really liked this one so will pay attention to this one Update: I liked it, it was an easy listen. The community rating of 2.76 sounds about right

enjoyed some of this lot of this actually, wild how short the songs are. felt like commercials or something

A cross between Crowded House and Sonic Youth, if you can imagins such a thing. Lofi Guitars, tuneful vocal harmonies, peculiar lyrics. Interesting. Undecided. Will revisit

Voicemails left by your musician ex-boyfriend

Meh

Sounds exactly like the album cover 😂

2.6 2x

A wonderful collection of half-baked, half-finished songs; often blurring into one another. Hard on the distorted guitars, exemplary of the Lo-Fi way of life.

2.5, 3 The cars 4 Todd Rundgren 3

Meh

Overall: 4/10 So much potential wasted by not actually finishing writing any of the songs. This is a demo album disguised as a studio album and it's frustrating because there's so much to love about these short snippets. I just can't fully enjoy an album that's not complete. Fav Song: My Valuable Hunting Knife

Very surprising, but also very inconsistent. Listening a second time gives it a higher rating.

Cool noisy indie rock aesthetics but short tracks feel like unfinished ideas

What a strange album. Every time I was getting into a song it would fade out and be over. The greatest album of half songs there ever was.

Just a bunch of words and sounds that don’t stay long enough to make any sort of positive impression.

1022 - "Here's your juice box and orange slice. Thanks for coming."

One of the rawest indie rock albums out there. Does a great job at representing the genre's core sounds. A lot of the time it's just a super distorted guitar line that manages to carry the entire song with its catchiness. The production is kinda shitty but in the best way possible, like music stripped back to an earlier stage. I think a lot of bands couldn't pull this off, but GBV made it their entire thing and it sounds really good.

Boy, I did NOT enjoy that.

Twenty-eight songs in 42 minutes somehow felt both rushed and too long. It is like the Beatles, pre-10,000-hour mastery, were hired by a no-budget ad agency to crank out commercial jingles and failed. Ex-Supermodel, with the background burping, completely lost me.

I liked it very much, I just wish the songs were longer! My problem with this album is that the songs never seem to go anywhere. Most of them have really catchy hooks, but seem to just stay there.

This one is SUPER hard for me. The most popular reviewer for this album pretty much nails my feelings on it. The thing is, those GBV fanboys they mention? Yeah, my brother is one. So… I have tried with GBV for years. And this album was among what has been thrown at me. The thing is, at times I have been prevailed upon by time. But I never find myself just needing to go listen to GBV. And while there are moments on this album that I really have come to love, they’re brief. I STILL find it grating overall. Again, the top reviewer says it, there is lo-fi and then there’s just demos that maybe are mostly shit. And YES, the thing is, there really DOES seem to be a potentially awesome album here. But this that was actually given to us is obviously a waste of that potential. 3 Boolean: true?

Not bad but not my kind of thing

Another second pass. My opinion hasn't changed much (I dislike that intentionally fuzzy sound and too many songs, even the ones I like (A Salty Salute, for example), feel too short to the point of seeming incomplete.) Didn't hate it, but I don't think it deserves a "fine" ranking.

It sounds sloppy but in a good way. Some songs are lo-fi but have a sense of polish. Defo could believe this was made with $10 and some beers

Pretty interesting

the crackling made me feel itchy

200 stars for this fuzzy, melodic cold stone masterpiece

Acima de tudo, é um disco muito interessante. É incrível o quão bem sequenciado ele é, conseguindo conter 28 músicas em apenas 41 curtos minutos, sem ficar algo maçante e/ou confuso. Já merecem reconhecimento por essa inusual proeza. A gravação é lo-fi, e muitas canções parecem terem sido gravadas em apenas um take. Por mais que eu prefira algo mais refinado e ornamentado, preciso admitir que muitas canções daqui possuem em si um magnetismo forte. Há aqui, surpreendentemente, refrões memoráveis e riffs alegres. Não é só barulheira! Prevalece sobre toda a sonoridade do álbum o espírito “slacker”. Há experimentação, mas até ela é repleta de uma atitude de “tanto faz”, ideias soltas e miscelâneas. Mas tudo muito bem executado. Uma grande caixa de surpresas. Isso resume bem este álbum, e consigo entender perfeitamente quem faz parte do culto GBV. Os caras possuem dúzias de discos, e não me surpreenderia saber que todos possuem uma atitude e sonoridade semelhantes ao conteúdo de Alien Lanes. E novamente, vou reiterar o que escrevi recentemente a respeito da minha generosidade com as estrelinhas aqui do projeto… Não consigo me ajudar! Eu realmente me apaixonei por esse disco, mesmo ele sendo algo tão diferente e (relativamente falando) fora do meu escopo. Foda. 5/5

Nope, it’s not for me. Songs are so short I can’t latch on to any ideas, and only a handful of songs have good ideas out of 28. Twenty. Eight. The mixing is bad, but I could overlook that with better material.

I liked this album so much. I can’t quite point a finger at what stood out to me so much.

Oli pikkasen outoa ja mitäänsanomaton. ⭐️⭐️

Whack as fuck but some good songs lol

Pretty impressive (except for the fact some slurs were used....) Lots of short songs (like 30) that make this a very album experience, but a lot of the songs were very good.

Gotta love GBV. I definitely prefer "Bee Thousand" but this album is great too and has a lot of the same appeal. Favorite track: My Valuable Hunting Knife

Ugh!

I really appreciate something different on this list, and this one qualifies. There are some brilliant moments buried by intentionally poor recording and a need to end songs prematurely. Man, if this was recorded normally and edited down to about 12 fully realized 3 minute tracks, this might be one of those albums that everyone you know owns. Since it isn’t that, I think it’ll just be a music nerd’s go-to album for impressing non-musical types.

2.5

I think I’m too old for this. This is what I imagine the cool kids were listening to in 1995 when I was in my late 20’s. Not my jam. After finishing this album I would like to revise to say that this is objectively bad and if you like it something is wrong with you.

Some really excellent music that is too lo fi for its own good. Worth a listen, lots of good ideas, though mostly unfinished.

I couldn't get into this.

I like it. I didn't expect to enjoy it, but it is a very interesting album. Some of the really short songs are ok, but the longer ones are great. This is something I'd listen to again.

I added Little Whirl to my rotation. Taking a second listen now. I'm familiar with lo-fi girl as we all are I'm sure but I've never heard a band of said genre. I'm a huge fan of low budget rough cuts. A salty salute had a really nice groove to it and felt short. The time changes in transition to Watch Me Jumpstart are subtle and mind bending I love it! Number to added to the rotation. It falls like a gear into place. Was this album meant to be continuous? The cuts in between tracks jarring. A Good Flying Bird is another short gem. Kinda reminds me of The Nerves, low budget great sounding tracks. 4/5 what a revelation for me. Some of the tracks are short unfinished ideas that could have been fleshed out some? Maybe not the intent.

When I saw 28 tracks, I was concerned. When I saw that they were about 2 minutes a piece, that made more sense. I hadn't heard of this band before, and I can see why. I have to say I personally liked this album. It was alternative/indie of the 90s. I enjoyed the variety of vibes from this one. As We Go Up, We Go Down gave me 70s feels, while Watch Me Jumpstart gave me more punk energy. Game of Pricks, the most streamed track, was energetic and gives me Oasis vibes, in a good way. Dumbchanger felt like melancholic David Bowie. I just feel like while the songs were short, there was enough difference in them to not feel like there is no break and they run together. I'm giving it a 4/5.

2,5

Fun and weird B-sides. Not sure, if I was a fairly successful band, if I would have released this. Not sure why this list includes so many similar pastiche albums. I feel like folks think the concept is more novel and rare than it actually is and so they give it more heft and credence when considering it? This was fine and certainly was at least blessedly short on a track by track basis. I can hang with this for the 42 minute runtime. There was pretty fair variation as well.

Sounds like lot of demos. Demos of interesting ideas. Lots of demos where the guitarist is too loud. I liked it.

My high school boyfriend tried to get me into this band 15 years ago (and I have the stats from Last.fm to prove it.) The best songs are easy to see because they have roughly millions of plays more than the rest of the album. It would be nice if GbV knew how to edit, but I guess it's that prolificness that appeals to their cult fanbase. The songs remind me of Fingertips on Apollo 18 by TMBG (short songs made to be shuffled) and I'm sure that will annoy some of the people reading this. Anyway, thank you for reminding me to delete 18 albums of their music from my hard drive which is probably 3 years of their output.

I ain’t even trippin it’s whatever dude

Y'know, I was gonna let these guys get away with being an indie rock, less quirky They Might Be Giants, but then someone started snoring during all of "Ex-Supermodel" and I had to dock it a whole point just for that. Not since Lou Berlin's 'Berlin' have I had such a negative reaction to a sound effect, lemme tell you...

Sometimes, it's refreshing to not have an album be perfectly polished in its mix. It's ok for an album to be lo-fi, and not in the modern definition of chill beats and vibes. Fuzz is good for you, sometimes. 3.5 bumped up to 4.

I’m at a 3.5 that I’ll bump up to a 4 solely as a vote of confidence for what this album’s trying to do. Going in, my fear was that 28 tracks in 41 minutes would lead to each track being unable to develop properly, thus making the ebb & flow of the album feel loose, unconnected & ultimately unsatisfying. This album occasionally is a bit too loose & a bit unconnected, but what I’m surprised by, after listening, is that it feels satisfying regardless. These tracks have a point to make (or no point at all) and jump straight into it, albeit without the same urgency as a post-punk album with any kind of similar lean. The writing here is generally good, if broad conceptually. The vocals are usually pretty damn nice, even with the low fidelity of the recordings. Instrumentally, I can’t find anything major to complain about. Each of the 28 tracks here vary in quality, and as individual tracks, the pendulum swings up & down between “that was good”, “that was fine”, & “that kinda happened”, with maybe an instance or two of “that was great”. I can’t say there was ever a bad track (granted, the one with the F-slur is probably the most suspect one here). This album’s biggest sin comes in its inability to trim some of the fat (a few of the much shorter tracks could’ve been cut) & in the lack of proper transitions for most of the tracks to keep the album’s energy going. There’s also just a couple of mild duds in there. In all of those senses, I’m at a 3.5. However, because of some of the higher & enjoyable peaks here & a vote of confidence for the poise & execution in this stream of consciousness approach to crafting an album, I’m gonna bump it up to a 4. I think the 2.75 here is a bit unwarranted, and the songs themselves do have an appeal, even if you’re just going by audio alone. It’s certainly bloated, but given that the runtime is still relatively short compared to what it could’ve been, I think it’s totally fine. I’ve definitely heard worse from the list, and I’m glad it’s here. A thumbs up from me.

Pretty good. I appreciate what they're doing. But it was kinda samey and didn't seem like great audio quality.

An interesting rock album, not something that will make me listen again but enjoyable 3/5

No

In a vacuum, I love the concept of how this album is structured. Songs shaved down to only their hooks in pure, unpolished form. The sad reality of this album is that these guys failed to deliver anything of impact in their passing snippets. “Game Of Pricks” isn’t bad, but if I have to look to the bands most popular song as their sole memorable track, then this album has a problem. “Motor Away” was good too, which brings me to the sad realization that if these guys put their efforts into 10 fully realized songs they could’ve had something really sweet. It’s a really frustrating notion knowing what this group is capable of. I can tell these guys are good vibes, but this record has no place in here. Breezy but benign. Softest 2/5

Not for me (I think)

Pleasant and fun? Sure! Profound or important? Not so much.

crudo, directo, honesto, sin disculpas, emocionante

2/5

no me gustó que las canciones sean tan cortas, nunca terminé de entrar en onda. 3/5.

Great starting place

one of the more relatively well known albums by the residents is Commercial Album, a record of exactly one minute snippets that proport to represent more or less all the unique musical information in the average pop song, which is then looped three times to create the standard three minute pop song length. this whole description is more of a joke than something that actually represents the contents of the album, but it might apply unironically to robert pollard's endless stream of songs that he writes on every lunch break. im not nearly familiar enough with the nuances of GbV to pick out what makes some tracks feel more like Fragments and some more like Microsongs but pollard rly does make sure to throw in melodic and harmonic twists p much every time...one chord is just a chord, but two chords is a song, ect ect. just a rly nice little buffet that forces u to appreciate the taste of the tunes in a very immediate way since they'll be gone as soon as theyre here...definitely a Band That Could Be Your Life

I wasn't familiar with the band, it's funny to listen to an alternative album through a punky lo-fi and brief filter. I liked the experience even though I might not ever listen to any song because they had no staying power whatsoever.

This is the blandest album I've listened to in a while. And, to be honest, of the twenty eight tracks it has, none is memorable or nearly good. Yes, some little nice melodies between all the noise. That's the most you can get out of this record. And, it doesn't feel long at all, but it's pretty uninteresting. I can get why it could have been interesting, but it feels very insipid. The guitars sound tired, the voice broken, the drums are just awful. And, the result is just a bunch of short songs that end up getting nowhere. Just an album that sounds cheap and like a joke. I won't say it's the worst thing I've ever listened to, but I just don't care.

There are so many melodies and ideas here. Love the low-fi. Cool album.

Cool demos! J'ai hate à l'album!

Les rois du lo-fi. Y'a une coupe de tounes un peu ordinaires et du matériel 5 étoiles. Je pense que Bee Thousand est supérieur. 3.75 étoiles

8/10

Lo fi done right. This does sound like it was just recorded in some guy’s basement, but the songs are fairly catchy and use their limited sound well

Should've been guided by musicality

Listened

The highs are very high but I found this inconsistent. Doesn't hold my full attention like bee thousand and it's nowhere near as good

Loved this, and didn't expect to. Just a bunch of short, punchy rock tracks.

Boring I wanted it to end

the lo-fi aesthetic is taxing. there are some excellent song fragments in the mix.

I only knew Game of Pricks before, which is on a couple of my playlists. I really like their sound. Impressive that they just recorded it at home on a 4 track for $10!!!

Yep, that's a 90s indie band. It's pretty good but it's no Teenage Fanclub (which is what came on when it was over). 3.5

28 songs in 41 minutes is just crazy. There are so many cool songs and they go by so fast it all blurs together. Hell I loved it all, except for that guy snoring

Like a cocktail hour where everything is fried, the 20+ songs did not offer much in variety.

Very interesting record - short and concise songs, very Beatlesque at times.

Just a whirlwind of catchy tracks which sound like they were recorded in a shed. A poorly constructed shed, too. Good fun.

Hard for me to be objective as GBV has always been one of my favorite bands. I might have put "Bee Thousand" or "Isolation Drills" on the list over this one but that's nitpicking. Robert Pollard is an incredible songwriter, seemingly able to write songs in his sleep. And Tobin Sprout was in the band at this point and contributing some great songs like "A Good Flying Bird." This album has some of GBV's best--"Game of Pricks," "Motor Away," "My Vaulable Hunting Knife," "Little Whirl"....and even the fragmented, short songs are fascinating and make you want to hear more. Some of the user reviews for this album are ridiculous, some giving it 1 star, saying they are just unfinished demos, etc. The whole low-fi weirdness was an intentional choice and it works brilliantly. And now, some 50 odd albums later, they have outlasted most of their peers and continue to put out great albums. Long live GBV!

The sound of when you're motoring away down the road, with a radio that only receives AM signal, and you're flipping through tons of channels and all you can get is your drunk uncles playing British Invasion songs that they grew up with and remember the chords of, but they can't remember any lyrics, so they make them up as they go along. Great stuff

some good stuff and I like his voice and vibe but 28 tracks are not all gold. Also the demo-ish sound kinda wore on me

7/1/26. Wasn't a fan. Thought it was noisy in a bad way; at least the songs were short. Also couldn't get it out of my head that the vocalist sounds like a mix of Sting and David Gilmour attempting a low budget project.

Not overly impressed. May need additional listening.

Pretty cool. 28 songs in 41 mins. Bananas. Everything’s well produced I think

ik kende de naam, niet de muziek... blij dat ik nu ook de muziek leerde kennen, aangename lo-fi...

27/06/2026 ...... It's not the worst thing I have ever heard. Spotify listeners: 249.2k

DNF

Found it derivative and uninteresting

There was some potential but shoving 28 songs into a 41 minute album made it hard to get into any individual song

Better than Coldplay

Alien Lanes is not Guided by Voices' best album - that's Bee Thousand - but it is a worthy follow-up, another set of short and punchy mixes of pop bliss and rock riffs. This album tries a ton of things, and true to form for the band, they don't all work. But the misses are short enough that by the time they start to drag, it's onto something new. And for every slow and pointless "The Ugly Vision" there's a propulsive "Motor Away" or a triumphant "Blimps Go 90." There's also "Game of Pricks," one of the best and hookiest rock songs ever. The rough production only adds to the charm, and the album mostly gets better as it goes on and finds its groove. An essential 90s indie rock album.

There’s a theoretical version of this album that I really fuck with. This isn’t it.

I admire the ambition. There were some cool moments and elements. I didn't feel like I could relax and enjoy a pot of it though. It's so low fi. To the extent that it's quite grating in many parts

Love these guys. Not super familiar with this album but it’s excellent

Kinda feels like listening to The Who Sell Out on the AM wave... but this is a light 4.

I have to go Robert Christgau on this one and give it a “dud” rating.

Not bad at all. Nothing to overly write home about, but a bit of a John Darnielle vibe going on and I very much like that sort of thing. I'd listen again certainly.

Inspiraron a The Strokes, y se nota Que buen álbum, sumamente indie, sumamente original, sin presiones creativas diría yo y se disfruta muy bien 28 canciones en un espacio de 50 minutos masomenos, no se dimensiona lo bien que se puede pasar con un álbum como este No se ocupa de mucho tiempo para hacer una canción memorable y disfrutable, acá se demuestra Muchas que recomendar, otras que son graciosas, otras no son muy memorables pero está bien Recomendado y para espíritus indie y alternativos, pienso que quizás esta es una gran base para entender de donde nace el movimiento

Long live lo-fi

Eine Ansammlung kurzer und kürzester Stücke ... irgendwie ohne Zusammenhang.

Terrible

Idk what that was

Not sure what to think about this one

More tracks means more good, right? Worked for Minutemen, right? Are those vocals intentionally obnoxious? Sounds like they're trying to be edgy but are only managing to cause me physical pain. And how many times to they have to use the word 'fa**ot'? Once is too many and I think I've heard it at least twice. I understand it was the 90s but that doesn't make it ok. I stand by my intolerance of slurs, even if used "ironically". "Ironically" just being a lazy hipster excuse for being a pos. That's a -1. Eat me. There might be a good album in here somewhere but they seem to have chosen to go with "bad because 'art', amirite *fart noise* lol". -_- wow you're so cool /s

Never heard of them before. This is their EIGHTH out of FORTY-TWO studio albums? I would say they'd fallen into "release everything you record", but I found out later that at one stage Pollard dug out 100 unreleased tracks for a box set – ha ha to the bank. After reading quite a fewe reviews, I gather that some people love the melodies and lyrics, but I'm with Christgau on this one, for me it’s a dud. Yes there are some catchy bits, but you shouldn't get a gold star for everything brought to show and tell? So many tracks to get through: I could pay more attention to the more popular ones? But the apparently-most-streamed song (Game of Pricks) is less-than-half-assed: if I wanted guitar pop with a bit of melancholy, I'd like it played properly (and I'd probably listen to Buzzcocks, not something "influenced by", YMMV). Some songs are awful, even the good songs are more like a demo tape than an album, and an ill-disciplined demo tape at that. But not much point in me making more negative comments about songs that offend me. Good news is that GDV don't have another album on the list, phew. For me, this album is Really Bad, I'll give it a new-for-me rating of 0/10 on my personal spreadsheet.

Somewhat of a disappointment here. First of all, what a terrible name for a band i've always thought guided by voices was an r &b group.It sounds like the female r& b group, especially from this time period. In fact, I think these guys would have done better to go that direction. I mean, seriously, just power chord. After power chord, strumming the same rhythms with relatively vapid lyrics.

Just not engaging.

eh it was ok. still my fav song was the only one i knew (game of pricks)

Not for me 1/5

I enjoyed this much more than I expected to. The lo-fi quality really added something to the overall mix and feel of the album. Nothing life changing, but a fun album.

Het klinkt als een soort demo tape. Als je kijkt naar het aantal nummers dan lijkt het ook alsof ze met hagel hebben willen schieten. 28 tracks waarvan een aantal onder of net wat langer dan een minuut. Met vlagen stoor ik me aan dit album, maar er staan ook wel leuke tracks op. Alsof (Amerikaanse) Beatles per ongeluk in de jaren '90 zijn beland, zo klinkt het soms. Wat mij betreft hadden ze wel iemand kunnen gebruiken die er even kritisch doorheen ging om bepaalde tracks toch achterwege te laten. Een hoge score zit er niet in, daarvoor is het me te rommelig allemaal. Het zit ergens rond de 2.8 om maar eens heel specifiek te zijn, al zijn sommige tracks irritant genoeg voor een 2. Het is geinig om hier kennis van te nemen en dat maakt dat ik voor een voldoende ga.

As another user here said, the albums sounds kind of unfinished. I enjoy it for what it is, but there is this feeling that it could have been more, were it not recorded for 10 dollars and a bunch of pints. Still, I can enjoy just having a collection of cool sketches and doodles that don't fill up the conventional length of a song. Makes for a different but worthwile listen.

GbV is always a welcome surprise on this list

It's an album that you do need to meet where it is at with the very short song length and the lo-fi production, but if you can key into that there is a lot to love here. It is just great indie rock that balances inventiveness and pop hooks without sacrificing either.

More influential than pleasing to listen to

There's definitely some interesting stuff here to go into, the fast paced writing making the whole album pretty much a pretty cool medley, and the strong post-punk and post-harcdore influences also are pretty cool. However, as much as there is on paper that makes this a really cool album, I just can't help but notice how messy it is. I get that it's kinda the point, but there are still plenty of albums out there that go for a similar idea to this one and manage to sound a lot more cohesive. Maybe it just requires more listens, but from my experience listening to it for the first time today I did find it very hard to keep up with.

I enjoyed this album but agree with some of the other reviews that it seems like a collec5ion of unfinished songs at times. Would lile to explore more music from this band but unsure where to start. There are a lot of albums

Not my thing

Feo y con ganas, porque el género del Slacker Rock se regocija en tener un audio malo, sucio y descuidado al igual que la voz del cantante. Éste género no es para mí parece, pero entre las innecesariamente tantísimas canciones que tiene este álbum pude rescatar un par.

Really enjoyed this but I hate that almost all the songs are a minute or less. I just don't listen to music that short usually. Favorite song: game of pricks

Terrible. All the songs are just concepts that weren’t fleshed out.

poklopilo se da sam točno na dan kad sam dobio novi mobitel dobio i ovaj album, pa sam ga odlučio poslušati na novom uređaju. premda sam znao da je lo-fi, mislio sam da nešto ne valja s mobitelom ili softerovom na njemu. ne, ne valja, samo je jako loše snimljeno. osim toga mogu istaći da je gotovo proto-vajstrajpovsko, premda nije tolko strašno kao vajtstrapsi. kad bih ga morao opisati jednom riječju, rekao bih: bezveze ljudi na ovoj stranici prigovaraju velikoj većini albuma iz ujedinjenog kraljevstva, nazivajući ih "generičnim britanskim sranjem" ili nečim sličnim. ovaj prije svega dosadan i bezvezan album pokazuje da je potpuno besmisleno upućivati takve prigovore, posebno zato što je prosječno "britansko sranje" u startu hiljadu puta bolja od pa i malo natprosječnih američkih drkadžija

Just kind of a discordant album, the flow between tracks was not there at all. The songs were alright and the singing was a bit rough for my liking. There's potential if it hadn't been such a compilation of short tracks. 1/5 stars.

Never heard of them before but hugely liked this! Liked how all of the songs are so short but still cover such a range of genres. Will check out more!

Meh. Lo -Fi

Hmm..this is a strange one to rate. I don't mind this musically too much, but the very short songs is kind of disorienting. From reading about GBV that seems to be their style. I don't know, it's kind of low effort?

There are times that I wish the songs were longer and times I wished the songs were shorter. I get what they were trying to do by making every song a little over a minute long but I don't think it worked overall, at least when I listened through it. This was also hard to listen to with how lo-fi it was, and I usually don't mind it as long as I enjoy the songs.

wow yet another band I should have checked out ages ago. Can he say that

Only on this album could go Robert Pollard go from a song of the most profound freedom of copping out into a song where he says, well y’know. And then declares that it’s a hit!! It feels like a Dire Straits spoof. Regardless, so many classic tracks. Chicken Blows is probably my favorite. Such a devastating song about a crumbling marriage. It’s like flipping radio stations. Completely reshaped how I think of creating ideas and expressing. There’s something so radical about only making the one idea work. The club is open. The club is open

oh Brother 🙄. certified "one of you guys will be Annoying" moment. a profoundly double virgo-an data dump of an album. good thing i like double virgo. great thing these guys can sequence. bad thing they have musical commitment issues. iffy thing on the "production value don't matter" (would've been fine if he remembered to turn down the vocal track on "always crush me") front. 4-4.3. i'm gonna go listen to "no smoking in the hallway" now.

Alt rock - album has a lot of short songs - I don't know if they ran out of lyrics or got bored? just OK

Guided By Voices has 43 albums as of time of writing this review, and this is their sole representation on the list. With how short the songs are and how many of them are on an album, it reminds me of Minutemen and other punk music. GBV aren't really punks, more of the indie DIY stuff mixed with a lot of beer drinking. I'll give them their due props of recording at home rather than rack up a bunch of superfluous studio fees that get most bands with record labels start their debt clocks. They did have Bob Ludwig master and try his damned hardest to cut out the sloppiness, but that's part of the charm with Indie stuff. Unfortunately I don't like that lofi sound in production. Minutemen could get away with it because they went to tape and not cassette recordings, a difference in clarity that is night and day. The songs itself are mostly good. Some are pretty bad but everything is super short so it only disrupts the flow a little. I'd say a low floor with a medium to high ceiling. Is Alien Lanes a bad album? Not at all, but as someone that is biased against lofi production it's not something I want to relisten to anytime soon. But as someone that puts all the music they ever like on a bigass shuffle playlist, I don't mind some of those songs popping up again. Now they have 42 other albums to go through and maybe I'll do that some other time.

This album has so much potential if the songs were just longer and mixed and mastered right

Även om det är mer LoFi än Pavement så är fortfarande inte renlärigt om vi ska vara indietalibaner, och det ska vi ju. På tok för långt och mycket naturligtvis, här finns 3,4 kanske t.om. 5 guldkorn men dom försvinner i det stora grustaget om 28(!) spår. Det finns nåt älskvärt med det spontana och icke uppstyrda, "Jag har en låt som nästan är klar, vi kör den"-attityden, men det blir för mycket av det för att man ska kunna omfamna det. Ett gäng spår drar åt nån slags 60tals harmonier (det är dom jag gillar bäst), ett gäng drar åt nån amerikansk 80tals altnativrock, ett gäng har nåt lite folkigt över sig. Så där håller det på i ytterligare några riktningar, dom hade tjänat på att hålla ihop det åt ett eller två håll. Jag tycker inte varje enskild del i sig är dålig men ska man bedöma det som album blir det dåligt.

De här rösterna ger mig ingen guidning om hur jag ska ta till mig de här 28 spåren. Det är spretigt. Känns som slumpvis utslängda fragment. Tillbaka till replokalen, välj bort 75 procent och skriv färdigt låtarna innan ni kommer tillbaka till studion. Svag tvåa ändå för de embryon till låtidéer som ändå finns.

Enminuterslåtar ska förstås vara punk. Vad är det annars för mening med dem? Nu blir det bara en sörja av allt. Här är det inte bara produktionen som är lofi. Hela materialet med något enstaka undantag, som Motor away är, low på alla möjliga plan. Att som i Ex-supermodell lägga in snarkljud kan nog vara den sämsta idén i pop/rockhistorien.

Grabbarna fick 100 000 dollar i förskott för att göra skivan. "The cost for recording Alien Lanes, if you leave out the beer, was about ten dollars." Jag antar att det är därför albumet är med i boken. En samling embryon till låtar där det kanske, ibland, med mycket god vilja kan anas något som skulle kunna bli en ok låt. Men å andra sidan går det allt för långt över tramsighetens gräns allt för ofta.

Listening to this I have begun to question why am I doing this. Why am I sitting here listening to really uninteresting music. Is it making me a better person? Broadening my horizons? Is it a badge of honor and proof I can muscle my way through the most torturous tasks? Because I had these thoughts durning this record - which by the way was pointless short bursts of crap - I am giving it one star. So annoying. I hope tomorrow is something good. I am about 630 records in and a lot of it is crap I am sorry to say. Not sure why I’m so bitter right now - has to be this record.

I actually really love the lo-fi sound of it. I really do. And there are some good songs sprinkled in. The problem is that most are pretty bad or unfinished. Keep the sound finish the songs you may be looking at a 4 here. Highlight: Closer You Are

Bit boring, they have better albums.

Never heard of these guys before. I really enjoyed the lo-fi, typical mid-90s sound and the slightly parodic vibe. It's a pleasant semi-conceptual album that clearly works better as a whole than as a simple collection of separate songs. However, there's also nothing that particularly grabbed my attention, it was mostly nice background music. Despite some good ideas and a competent execution, it ultimately felt lacking in depth and ambition. I won't come back to it, but I'm glad I gave it a try. It certainly doesn't deserve such a low global rating. 5/10

I've always loved punk so it's nice to hear those very short tracks. People used to have fun. Listening once was enough though.

This reminds me of Pavement, just less rock, less fresh, and less spontaneous. It goes down easy enough, but not much more than that. A few moments during the listen struck me as genuinely well written, which kept me engaged here and there. Still, I’ll probably never come back to it.

My initial listen didn't do much for me. I gave it another shot, not sure exactly why, but I'm glad I did. The second listen gave me a much better impression. There might be something here...

fascinating mix of micro-songs

Sounds like it was recorded through a headphone on to a C90 using tin cans on strings as amplifiers. I think there is good music here but the poor production makes this a chore

Listenable in small doses but a bit harsh for the entire album in one go.

I usually don't like this kind of '90s lo-fi bullshit and this was no exception. A couple of ok songs (As We Go Up, We Go Down, Motor Away) but overall annoying to listen to. And the longer I listened, the more it annoyed me. Sorry, GBV. I don't think I'll be listening to your other 156 albums.

A lot of short songs, many of them influenced by the Kinks or other early punk bands. Good. 3.5/5

Eclectic - some excellent some less excellent always interesting pavement-esque lo-fi slacker

Dura 40 minutos y tiene como 30 temas, me parece una exageración. El chiste debe ser escucharlo todo entero de arriba a abajo pero tampoco es algo increíble je. En otras palabras: una pija.

This album is like the Ohio Weather. Don't like it? Wait 3 minutes, it'll change. Makes sense they are from Dayton. Some of it was great, some of it was terrible. A few songs I wish were longer. A few, even as short as 30 seconds, were too long. Such is the GBV way. They throw everything at the wall. About 3/5 of it stuck. So... 3*

Coo

Guided By Voices kind of feels like the logical conclusion to indie music. They are a band, fronted by someone who appears to be a completely average resident of Dayton, Ohio. He is credited as having written somewhere in thr ballpark of 3000 songs (per Robert Pollard's Wikipedia article). And Guided By Voices has released nearly as many albums as they've existed years (42 albums, to date). They were making music that sounded like mauled Beatles demo tapes on Alien Lanes. And they were capable of writing, essentially, perfect pop songs, so long as these songs do not exceed approximately 90 seconds. And sure enough, despite being 41 minutes long, Alien Lanes has a staggering 28 songs, the longest of which is an epic 2 minutes and 56 seconds. And somehow, miraculously, they manage to pull a damn near perfect album out of this. The cumulative effect of this one is much more than the sum of it's parts. Alien Lanes is an exercise in *brutal* efficiency. These songs manage to instantaneously establish themselves as fantastic pop song writing ideas, let you get a little comfortable, then end. And then you're immediately introduced to another idea just as immediate or arresting or fascinating. There's stuff here that functions as power pop, grunge, folk, and more. The shotgun approach to songcraft here really lets Guided By Voices cover a lot of ground and basically burn every cool idea they have without any risk of anything getting boring or stale. And it just let's then keep up the energy for the whole time without even giving the listener a chance to fall out of the album. But really, there are some *fantastic* songs on this that blur by. This is literally 28 consecutive, great songs. And the band's joyously sloppy approach fits *perfectly*. On some level I don't think there are really any skips on Alien Lanes. Guided By Voices have really happened upon a beautiful, strange, unique magic here.

An interesting collection of short tracks. I found that there just wasn't enough time for me to get into a track before it passed to the next one. But there were a few standouts nonetheless: As We Go Up, We Go Down Motor Away Striped White Jets Blimps Go 90

Couple of good tracks, but on the whole fairly unremarkable for me

I love this album. So many ideas shoved into forty something minutes and they’re all worth exploring. Nothing lingers longer than it needs to, everything punches, it’s wonderful. 10/10.

Blind album and artist. I feel like this album gave me whiplash between some songs and others just because some was jarring and some was good. 3.

thats that shit

The album itself sounds like a half-finished demo tape of what could all become amazing songs. I'd love to hear a non "lo-fi" version of this band, and indeed, putting my player on radio mix produced an awesome playlist where I loved every song. But this album itself? It's a sum of parts, waiting to be greater.

If half of these were developed into full sins this might be the best album ever made. In the meantime it just feels like a bunch of disjointed thoughts

Listening session: may 20th, while mealprepping Listened to before: no Thoughts: I was a bit scared when I saw this album contains 28 songs, but it turns out that they’re more like unfinished demos, sometimes even under a minute. Not really bad but not my style either Favourite tracks: As We Go Up, We Go Down, Game Of Pricks & My Son Cool

You could really hear the inluence of a lot of very famous bands, but none of it really sounded new or original. Don't get me wrong, it was good and I'm a fan, but I don't really know what I'm supposed to have been getting out of this album.

It's... fine.

It's weird, there are like 4 songs I like on this, which would be pretty good for most regular sized albums, but there's so much lame filler on this that I forget most of them by the time it's done. Game of Pricks, Little Whirl, My Son Cool and Alright are good tracks, and that's just 1/7th of the album (1/5th if we're going by time).

GBV is a great band that I should get more familiar with. About this record, I'd normally be inclined to say something like, "I'd like to listen to this more. I'm adding it to my collection." But who am I kidding? I'm not adding any NEW albums to "my collection" right now. I've got 1,001 albums to listen to over the next two and a half years. I ain't got time for additional listens. I'm barely keeping up as it is. And when this is done, I'm not gonna remember any of the albums I thought I'd want to revisit.

This is one of their better efforts, and stands in well as a representation of their music. It's ramshackle, doesn't say much, and contains too many foreshortened musical ideas. I may like Mag Earwhig better, but it doesn't really matter. You are going to get a few great rock songs; in this case, that includes Motor Away and My Valuable Hunting Knife. You are going to get too many dumb songs that never needed to get committed to media; in this case, that includes The Ugly Vision, (I Wanna Be A) Dumbcharger, and more. The greatest hits record is probably the best way to experience this band. BTW, I've seen them twice, kind of accidentally. I'm not sure how Bob Pollard is alive. The first time I saw him chug at least 8 beers, maybe as many as 12, over the course of a 60 minute +/- set. He did not seem changed in any way. It was remarkable and scary.

Four great songs by my tally: As We Go Up, Game of Pricks, Motor Away, and Alright. The rest ranges from pretty listenable filler -- the guitars are always great -- to a few that are kind of annoying.

4/5 - It's like you're scanning radio stations and every station has a GBV song. That's a good thing. So many songs, but Game of Pricks, Motor Away, and My Valuable Hunting Knife have been long-time favorites.

Algunas si, otras no

Not a whole lot to be wowed at here.

vignette after vignette of abrasive power pop goodness. the 28 individual tracks that form Alien Lanes don't usually last long enough to stick in your mind, but the cumulative effect they have is memorable nonetheless. it's as if every song has been stripped down to its barest essentials. the production quality, which frequently brings the music into noise and psych realms, evokes 60s rock n' roll by way of 90s underground DIYism. there's something truly old-school about the whole thing, but it's far from an exercise in retro-fetishism. light 8/10.

No private session used for Spotify. This album feels like one of those records where the band either disbands or someone in the band dies so they rummage through the recording studio to find a bunch of demos of songs, cobble those together and release it for a cash grab or to satisfy a contract with a record label. Would be interesting to hear a more polished version of these tracks, file GBV as artists who sabotage themselves. After crapping on the quality of the recording and the intentions of the band, I have to say I like this and next time I am doing work in the garage, with the garage door open of course, I will put this on.

Pretty rubbish. Absolutely agree that it feels like the demo tape for what could be a good album. It feels like throw enough shit at the wall and hope some of it sticks.

2.5 - ok

I liked the first few songs then they started blending and got boring.

Nope.

Not terrible but I never want to listen to this again. Sounds like background music to a shitty teen drama

I really really want to like Guided by Voices, but 90% of this album didn’t land at all for me and the other 10% isn’t likely to stick. It’s too bad, there’s flashes there that I loved, but they’re gone so quick and so frustrating to listen to that it never feels rewarding. I think I could deal with either the raw tape sound, or the two dozen unfinished songs, but not both.

This is interesting. I have a soft spot for music with a "homemade" sort of feel, and this ticks that box. The songs being so short makes the album feel pretty diverse and fast paced, and the sound is grungy (but not grunge) and DIY. It's a fun listen for me. Maybe not for everyone, but for me.

Kind of reminds me of the flaming lips but less psychedelic and more indie garage. I liked this album and will definitely return to it. I had always intended to listen to them but never knew where to start. I haven’t been giving any of these albums very many stars because I’m waiting for something to really hit me, I’m waiting to connect with something on a deeper level than just appreciation.

there were sooooo many songs in this album but still only like 40 mins so slay. only one was memorable im afraid

Haven't listened to them before, it's an alternative rock album, very moody and with many short songs. Was good to listen to, it's a varied mix and oddly formed album.

I did not need to listen to this before I died

Baffles me how this was included in the list.

This was fun and unique.

Meh; lo fi slop mostly.

Never going to be my thing but can appreciate parts of this. Adjusted to one star because of the snoring wtf. RYM: N Saved a song: N

Lots of short songs, wonky rock

This album was pretty good I had never heard of this group

First pass was a pass. Second listen really improved.

Guided by indie masters into the great unknown.

Álbum muy largo, canciones muy cortas. No es disfrutable, la música se escucha más que las voces. Es un caos

Just a couple of regular dudes from Ohio who like to smoke darts and drink beers and occasionally record music in their 4th grade school teacher frontman’s concrete basement. I really dig the collage of hooks and melody. Some of it sounds like alternate reality 60s Beatles demos if they were from the Midwest. I do wish the songs were a bit longer, listening to the album felt like an exercise in musical edging. That didn’t stop me from listening 3 times though. I’m a sucker for the lofi garage band diy aesthetic so this is an easy 5. Some interesting quotes I've read from this 25th anniversary interview https://uproxx.com/indie/guided-by-voices-alien-lanes-oral-history-25th-anniversary/ "I wanted Alien Lanes to sound like a late-night radio show without a DJ" "I had my brother pound on my back with his fists to create a tremolo sound for “Chicken Blows.” "Alien Lanes was mastered by Bob Ludwig, one of the industry’s most famous mastering engineers, who has worked on scores of classic albums by Bruce Springsteen, Radiohead, Coldplay, and many, many others."

I also really like the velvet underground

Alright was more than alright and the rest were fine

Even though the music isn’t what I would choose to listen to, it is so 90s down to the cover art that I added an extra star for the nostalgia.

INDIE ROCK

Messy, and not in a great way

It was fine, but not really pushing me to dive deeper into their catalog

A bunch of short songs

I don't really understand the creative decision to make 28 very short tracks. Especially when so much of it just blends together anyway. The music itself is fine— lo-fi garage rock pretty much sums it up.

Glad to have heard this. A lot of music gets labelled ‘indie’ but this is the real thing. Reminds me of the English band The Bevis Frond. Under the radar but interesting and cool sounds.

So freaking good. Hit is maybe the best 20-second song you'll ever hear. Followed by the ever sweet Valuable Hunting Knife. Fantastic 1-2 punch

This is good - but if you’re only going to put one GBV record on this list Bee Thousand is the one to pick.

I find this record really frustrating as it's got some really good moments, but then it's littered with absolutely pointless noise.

Noisy! Not sure I understand it. Also it loses a star for unironic f-slurs. Sorry, I don't make the rules. 4/10

Not for me

Another album that sounds like it could have dropped in from any decade in the last sixty years, and generally in a good way. The tracks are fairly short, so there’s a lot there, but it begins to feel like some of them are experiments that were discarded when they couldn’t grow into normal songs.

Not bad, but also not great. I liked the Beatley sounding ones, like Game of Pricks.

Pollard‘s continual churning of Lo-Fi musings are not without their gems, but I find the moments of raw beauty few and far between on this 1995 release. I highly recommend listening to his 1996 masterpiece, “Under The Bushes Under The Stars.”

God i hated Alien Lanes. You are telling me that this album was released in 1995?! This sounds like it was recorded in 1965! But that's not the only bad thing about this album. There are also things like the mediocre at best, poor at worst vocals, the incredibly insipid lyrics in some songs and the fact that these songs are way too short and never allow enough time to sink in (that's not something i complain about often with these albums). Its honestly a shame too since i wanted to like this album since it has some good ideas but i just can't deny it, this album is hot garbage and a big reminder why you shouldn't waste the majority of your budget on beer. Best Song: Little Whirl Worst Song: Auditorium

Solid

I had thought Guided by voices was more of a “wall of sound” type band like My Bloody Valentine for some reason (maybe I was conflating MBV and GBV?) but that’s not the case (thankfully). Interesting format to have 30 90 second songs but I wouldn’t say it worked for me. Every time I liked a song it was over before I got into it, not that I had any idea what was going on anyway. I didn’t hate it but I don’t think I’ll come back to it. 2.3

3.2 Looks like GBV have a huge catalog and this looks to be as good a starting point as any. Dug the vibe and songwriting, i guess i will call them thoughts, as the songs felt unfinished. Maybe that's the point

I was kind of jamming to this album while doing tedious work tasks, and then the snoring on Ex-Supermodel came and ruined my flow.

I definitely did not need to listen to 28 90-second demos of some trashy rock band before I died. The ten dollar recording cost is very evident

# Album Name: Alien Lanes # Artist: GBV # Rating: 2/5 # Comments: Honestly, wtf. Theres some good sounds in parts of this album. Then the song randomly finishes. Its like a demo tape that youve never got round to finishing. Quite frustrating. No idea if thats the style or just to be different but man. # Top Tunes: # Would I listen to it again? No

Low Fidelity music? I'd rather be listening to Yo-ho Fiddle-di-dee music ye savvy what me be sayin', mateys?

I loved it. It stood up to the hype.

Guided By Voices have a lot of albums. There are some good songs in here but I’m amazed that 28 songs in 41 minutes was way more of a slog than I thought it would be. I do like a few of their singles on other albums but this one is mostly a miss for me. They seem like they’d be a fun live show.

Maybe a little too raw for my liking. Liked the middle of the album the most and might like something else from the group a little more.

Not my usual cup of tea, but it was still a nice and fun discovery. I didn't think it was possible to have a record with that many tracks (28!) that last under an hour, but they made it 😄. Favorite track : as we go up, we go down.

Lo fi rock with extremely short and forgettable songs. I didn't really like their sound and after 28 songs in 41 mins I felt like I'd been listening for more than an hour.

Interesting by not a one of my 1001 favs.

I weird one, but kind of good, like a great listen, mostly with how short the songs are

More 90's indie rock that sounds like it worships at the alter of The Beatles. Specifically Sgt. Peppers era Beatles. That said, while I enjoy it, there's just not enough her to get me invested. Only a single song above two amd a half minutes. Decent for what it is, but feels very fragmented.

I've never heard anything quite like this. Some Lemonheads albums maybe had a slightly similar feel. Most of these tiny songs have more creativity and energy in them than 75% of the stuff on this list. It's quite something.

Guided by voices is a name that I’ve bumped often during the years whenever the best 90’s alternative rock bands are being listed. I’ve tried to listen to them few times but never really got too interested. There are some decent pop songs here but at times this album sounds like it’s the product by a alternative rock parody act in some episode of Portlandia

This falls to category of ok albums that listener doesn't remember after some days.

#373 / 1089 Heard before? ❌ Revisit? ❌ ✅ There is something very Pixies-like about this band, except it sounds like they've had the drummer's big brother come in to record and mix it. And it has way too many songs, 41 minutes is so much. I later read they record on 4-track cassette Tascam, it's their "thing" and I hate it. We used to demo new song ideas on one of these in the 80's, even then it resulted in something we felt should not be released; and we fucken played death metal!!! It sounds lo-fi, but not in a thought-out way; it's like an aural accident in motion. This is not for me at all. Weak 2/5 bordering on 1/5.

Well, I listened to it. Aftef the hundredth album I gave up on detailed reviews for the 2-3 star albums. Bland nothingness and indie lo-fi bucket of mid.

Cut the number of tracks in half and then flesh out the songs. Sorry, Gen X, this sucks. Production is good and that's about it.

Favorite tracks: A Salty Salute, Watch Me Jumpstart, As We Go Up, We Go Down, Game of Pricks, Motor Away, Blimps Go 90

Wild! I really liked this, it´s all over the place, short bursts of energy, awesome.

Didn't hate it. Didn't love it either. I'm almost certain it wasn't the album of the year for 1995.

Heard a lot more about these cats than I have by them. Pretty solid rock and roll doesn't outstay its welcome ever either.

Precies korte leuke sketches

Wel tof! Heel korte liedjes wel

I love the energy and the cover art, but a lot of these songs sound... unfinished. They end so abruptly. 3.5/5

Not really full songs

This simply doesn’t sound good… objectively. There’s the occasional somewhat decent song but overall just a mish mash of sounds.

I guess I am not alone — a ton of people who consider themselves pretty plugged into indie and alternative music have had the exact same “Wait… how did I miss Guided by Voices?” moment. The short answer is: they were hugely influential, but never mainstream, and their rise happened in a very specific corner of the ’90s music world that was easy to miss unless you were tuned to the right frequency. GBV weren’t just “indie rock” — they were deeply underground, releasing ultra–low-budget, self-recorded albums on tiny labels. Their early records didn’t get the kind of press that traveled far outside zines, college radio, and small scenes. If you weren’t in those circles, they simply didn’t surface. If your listening leaned more toward polished alt‑rock, Britpop, grunge, or electronic, GBV wouldn’t have crossed your radar. You could follow music closely and still miss them because they weren’t part of the big cultural conversation — they were more like a cult classic film you only hear about from a friend who’s really into movies. The overall aesthetic leans to a 4 but because they are from Ohio deduct one point. A 3 it is.

If The Beatles formed 25 years later and joined the indie rock movement. I can't shake the comparison. A vingette of songs.. short, and sweet. Not sure how I feel about that. Overall, I'm thinking a 3.4/5.