Reviews (page 3 of 8)
The 1995 demo “Alien Lanes” by Guided By Voices is a product of an era when amateurism was art. It contains a few nice song ideas—good enough to be developed into a proper album. Robert Pollard manages to record decent vocal tracks without professional production—so he can do it when he wants to. It remains to be seen whether the rest of the band can’t or won’t—in any case, their recorded tracks are unusable. I would recommend that Robert Pollard record the finished songs on an acoustic guitar and send them to a producer. I don’t understand what this stuff is doing here—I actually thought this was a place where albums worth listening to were featured.
Horrible production, none of these songs go anywhere. The artwork looks like it was thrown together by someone using PowerPoint on Windows 95 for the first time.
I really enjoyed this. Built like a punk album. Not really anything bad per se. 3.5 rounding up.
Exactly the kind of foolishness I’m into. Well done folks
Not offensive, but not for me. No standouts.
Een verzameling korte nummers (28 nummers in 42 minuten), expres gruizig opgenomen, het doet een beetje Kinks-achtig aan af en toe, verder bevinden we ons in ijle, eigenwijze indie-sferen. Geen idee wat ik ermee moet, en ik moet nog een kleine honderd albums dus ik ga de volgende opzetten. Overigens kan het altijd korter. Ooit maakte Harro T., bekend van de Nederlandse noise-formatie DLA (Drie-Letterige Afkorting), de legendarische plaat 'Avonturen in Wonderland', waarop 'De Troetelbeertjes' er in 20 minuten 312 ultrakorte nummers doorheen jagen, waaronder het geniale 'Groene hopjesvla' (met de tekst bestaand uit het woord 'Gadverdamme!!!').
"The Club is open." De band heeft een propper bij de deur van dit album neergezet. Hoe jaren '90 wil je het hebben? En net als in het echte leven zorgt die propper ervoor dat we liever een deurtje verder kijken. Maar goed, om andere redenen, waren we al van plan naar binnen te gaan, dus vooruit, let's go! Binnen blijkt hoe slecht de propper is. De tent is leeg. Er komt wat ongebalanceerde muziek ons tegemoet. Het publiek dat wel binnen blijft, lijkt knettergek. Het zou mij niet verbazen als ze mijn schoen willen lenen om mee te bellen. De muziek blijft intussen vraagtekens oproepen. Was dit nummer al afgelopen? Heeft dit nummer nog iets met de club te maken? Het geluid is belabberd. Soms krijgen we even (iets) beter geluid om het weer terug te draaien naar schuur-geluid en daarmee de eerdere zin nog eens te zingen (Pimple Zoo). Dat we maar mogen weten, dat dat nare geluid expres is....
Ik heb het idee dat ze het verkeerde bandje hebben ingeleverd bij de platenmaatschappij. Dit klinkt als de mixtape, het kladblok, waar je af en toe wat ideeen op opneemt en dan later uitwerkt samen met de rest van de band. En dan heb ik het nog niet eens over de geluidskwaliteit, die ronduit bedroevend is. Het jammere is, dat als ze deze ideetjes nu wel hadden uitgewerkt, er best potentie in zit tot toffe nummers. Maar nu voelt het als een half af album, waar we zelf maar uit moeten kiezen wat we leuk vinden. Terwijl dit dus al het 8e album is blijkbaar van deze band. De snobs zullen dit juist wel extra interessant vinden allemaal, maar ik heb liever een product dat min of meer klaar is. In dit geval heb ik liever het product dubbelvla, in plaats van dat ik de chocolade en vanillevla zelf bij elkaar doe. Gemiste kans, waardoor ik niet verder kom dan 2 sterren.
Would be a 5 star if it wasn't for the ridiculous amount of weird shorts
Pretty good! Most of this really worked for me! Enough to where I’m thinking of getting in deeper.
The only thing good about this album; Is how brief it is. Jangled, ratchety noise. No coherence or structure. Just a rambling mess of instrument noise over the audible manufactured hiss of vintage sound.
"The cost for recording Alien Lanes, if you leave out the beer, was about ten dollars." Dude, that rules.
me gustó. guardé algunas y ya había escuchado otra.
Average noise, piss poor recordings
Speed running this, cause so did these freaks
You're joking right ? I was meant to listen to this before I die ? Just let me die in peace next time. Did they forget what rhythm is? Why are the vocals so hard to hear, the production quality is straight ass. low 1
Steamy trash
I enjoy the general sound, though there are so many songs that it's hard to remember individual ones.
Felt thrown into a 90s teenage Rom com
It’s ok :)
Guided By Voices deliver some primo 90s alt-rock in a style that reminds me of Hard Day’s Night era Beatles. There are lots of great melodies packed into these short, tight rock songs. Very short, actually. Most of these songs are under two minutes, and lots are under one minute. But the album functions kind of like a continuous suite. It was very enjoyable on a first listen. I’d like to spin it again now that I know what I’m getting into.
I really dig the lofi sounds in this record. I've heard this band before but not enough for me to be able to ever recall what they sound like. "Game of Pricks" into "The Ugly Vision" is a nice 1-2 punch of tracks. They are pretty different but still cohesive. Shows some really nice depth to their repertoire. Really enjoyable, and I love the album cover. Just surreal enough.
Enjoyed it a lot when it was in but truly forgettable album
I've listened to this one before. I generally enjoyed it but it doesn't seem memorable to me or something I need to come back to.
This is weird, but in a really fun way!
I'm familiar with Guided by Voices in name only, so this is my first time listening to an album by them. It's got a bit of a "lo-fi/garage-y Beatles" feel to it. But I don't really enjoy this that much. For some of these songs, it's nice that they're short. Other songs feel like they could benefit from some more development. As this is going on, I'm finding myself more annoyed by this album. It sounds and feels too much like it's a demo, instead of an actual album. Please, gentlemen, tune up your guitars, at least. And then, make sure you get a better vocal take the next time around.
Run of the mill indie.
There’s a lot to like about Guided By Voices, and it’s not just because it’s the biggest band to come out of my hometown. But there’s a few things that personally frustrate me: (1) The whole lo-fi thing just grates. I care about good production and great-sounding albums too much. I get it, I see why it’s their thing, but I just would love them more if the albums were more slickly produced. It’s probably why one of my favorite albums of theirs is the one produced by Ric Ocasek. (2) A lot of Guided By Voices songs just feel like remnants or parts of great songs, or the seeds of what might become great songs. Not that these remnants aren’t pretty great themselves — and Robert Pollard’s ability to write hooks and melodies is astonishing — but it all just seems to get dumped out and thrown away, one lick at a time. A lot of their songs just end up being ephemeral to me. I would love Guided By Voices far more if the songs were constructed into more fully realized songs. (3) The sheer number of Guided By Voices albums is overwhelming. I know that seems odd to complain about an artist releasing too much work, but…Who can possibly keep up? 3.5 stars
Moments.
Listenable.....short songs
Now THIS is INDIE Low fi af. Normies gtfo. 4/5
Not good. Loads of very short songs all sound the same, dull
Beatles tribute act.
These are all very good song ideas. Somebody should really finish them. Seriously, call Wilco.
Best album ever
This was intriguing, kinda sounds like if you put The Beatles, Pavement and Minutemen in a blender and then they created a record with lo-fi production. There's a lot of catchy songs here. Not sure I can give it 5 as it's more like a bunch of appetisers than a delicious main course. Fun though
Lät lite intressant när jag läste om bandet. Men detta var ju vansinnigt trist. Lo-fi på ett dåligt sätt. Skulle kunna vara en demoinspelning. Helt ok röst och säkert några bra melodier stundtals men det drunknar i intetsägande slask. Första 1:an.
WOW
I really appreciate GBV but have never done a complete dive. With the 7 or 8 albums I'm familiar with, I always say the same thing: some absolute bangers and some unlistenable stuff. The audio variance, the Hodge Podge of sounds, and the fluctuating moods create such disparate experiences. I know for the super fans, this is the charm, but I find it incredibly inconsistent. Brilliant and committed, but inconsistent.
13 song in, and the longest is 2:24, and THAT's to long! I have to listen to 15 more songs? No way. I've heard enough.
Definitely not what I was in the mood for. Forty minutes of very short post-punk navel gaze nonsense. Just annoying.
Very few bands are able to make incomplete song segments work. The Beatles managed to do it. GBV are NOT the Beatles. The terrible production doesn’t help. The complete songs are top notch, though that doesn’t do much to save the album as a whole.
I first came across GBV in the early nineties and loved 'Vampire on Titus' but none of their other albums hit that sweet spot for me; the odd track maybe but never the whole album like that album. And this one feels a bit like that. Nothing really jumps out and although I like their short song format, they mostly just blend into each other.
Went back and forth on this one. Really liked it, then started finding some of it annoying. Overall, pretty good. I'd listen again.
At least it was quick. Not for me.
Very interesting concept, roughly 1 min songs, some just 15 seconds snippets. Feels like something I could write an essay about but sadly I don't have that time in my life.
Nope.
They could easily splice 3-4 of these tracks together and have one or two decent songs.
gut manchmal anstrengend 6/10
Really……..I REALLY needed to hear this album before I die? Whoever suggested this needs to have giving opinions revoked because was was this
Rock. One thing I really liked about this album was all of the short songs. It allowed them to mix it up a lot and if you didn’t care for a song, it’d be over in a minute.
Only GBV could produce a Lo-Fi-demo-quality album with 28 unique songs and leave the listener wanting more.
We have Pavement at home. Landfill shite.
I’m a sucker for this type of 90s lofi slacker rock and am very pleased GBV made it into the list
67/100. This is a really wild indie record that feels like a massive mix of every genre you can imagine. It moves so fast that you barely have time to process one idea before the next one starts which gives it a cool and unpredictable vibe.
Game of pricks is an excellent song. The rest is listenable but never quite reaches that standard.
(28 songs, 41 mins)
When I saw LO-FI I was excited. I guess my understanding of LO-FI was wrong. I didn't care for this album at all.
Some songs remind me of some of the stuff John Lennon was into during the Beatles acid era. Why do you sing with an English accent? This sounds like if Neutral Milk Hotel went a little harder into the rock elements of their music. I wouldn't be surprised if Jeff Mangum cited this as an influence. Or I guess maybe if dinosaur jr went a little less into rock. Kind of in the middle. This is definitely an album that I will come back to randomly years down the road, and be really into.
Album difficile à noter. J’ai longuement hésité entre 3 et 5. Je mets 4 finalement car l’album est pour le moins original même si non abouti. Il s’écoute très bien et les morceaux très courts s’enchaînent très bien. Mais on reste sur sa faim avec des morceaux clairement inégaux.
Never heard of the group before. A LOT of brief songs, many only up to a minute in length, which makes it hard for the songs to really sink in for me
Cool idea and fairly unique. I just don't like the songs that much.
very fun. an album of 2000's MTV intros. maybe all songs should be 90 seconds long. snoring sample goes hard. favorite song is Motor Away
Rating: 8/10 Guided By Voices really is Beatles worship if it were raw and lo-fi 90's Midwestern slacker shit. They pack 28 tracks into 41 minutes that move along chaotically and the results are mostly great. Lot of cool tracks here, but the longer ones turn out to be the most effective, like Motor Away and My Valuable Hunting Knife. The only tracks I really don't like are Hit and Gold Hit they kinda suck. This band is right up my alley so of course I like this. 2.75 average on this site is a bit of a joke, but I can tell the community here does not like noise and lo-fi production.
Short and weird, but somehow very listenable and kinda enjoyable. Notes of certain songs sounded Interpol-y, and others were just interesting without being grating. Not the BEST wack unknown album ever but beats about 60% of them 6.0/10
Nothing of interest. And grating on the senses. I do not care for this at all and never wanna hear it again.
This feels like a collection of 28 unfinished demos. But some of them are not bad.
This isn’t as offensive as I was fearing. Just didn’t do much
As others have pointed out there's a lot of fun mid-60s rock and roll through a noisy 90s kaleidoscope, outside of the opener, Striped White Jets and ex-supermodel I thoroughly enjoyed this. With this type of music short punchy songs are better and obviously that's here in spades.
It's fine, but I feel like I could walk into a dive bar open mic down the street and find a band doing something similar, they just didn't get a $100K album advance and honored with 1001 entry.
Not really that exciting. Kinda just like a variant of rock.
pretty cool, although I was distracted while listening and to be honest wasn't really feeling this record - felt disjointed
This reminds me of playing underwater at the local pool during the summer, circa 85. There's the sound of bubbles trickling up past your ears and splashes from up top, all creating a constant, subtle, continuous noise. I loved yelling and seeing if someone understood what I said beneath the surface. It always sounded foreign to my ears, distorted, messy, sometimes far away.
I am a fan of good production. But that not necessarily mean "clean" production. Production is a choice. Albums from the 30s didn't have a choice. They sounded rough because that was the limit of the technology. GBV make a choice. And their choice -at this time - was to record under practiced song directly onto a 4 track while drinking a case of beer and seeing where that gets them. Some call these demos. They are really just moments in time. You could pick the best 10-12 songs, go into a proper studio with a real producer and produce a good - possibly great - album. They did that in later years (more good than great). I think if that had happened they would have just been another indie rock band that played club and toured in van until they signed a contract and had the opportunity to record on a big studio. Spending a lot of money and - as a result - ceding many choices to someone else (producer/record company execs). And like 100s of other bands of the era they would have just disappear into the ether. Music is almost secondary - almost. Ultimately - this music is about energy. Capturing energy. Capturing a moment in time. That has always been the point of the studio. But what that actually looks like varies wildly. They were important - directly and indirectly. They taught me that there is no need to return to the chorus if you've already done it. Why not write another hook instead. Also - anything can be a song - where it's a 2.5 minute British invasion inspired banger or a 28 second experiment/idea/doodle/goof. They can all have value. And if you don't like a song - don't worry - there's another coming up right now. And if that doesn't work out - how about this one... Could this album be edited down - sure. Could it be "better" recorded - definitely. Would that make it better - not so much. 3.5 stars.
I may very well be speaking too soon, but I think I’m going to enjoy this. A Salty Salute was a really intriguing intro track, and the fact that there is less than two minutes per track is interesting to me. Evil speakers had a good groove to it and leading in to Watch Me Jumpstart was a good transition. I’m liking the vocals. They’re imperfect, but work well with the album. I like the grungy guitar. They’re not witches had some really great lyrics, and as we go up… was a very fun track! Dumbchanger had a more somber tone, but it was welcome! Then to go in to the upbeat Game of Pricks was great. The ugly vision was so melodic. The guitar flowed really nicely and scratched an itch in my brain. I wasn’t a huge fan of Good Flying Bird, but it was over quickly. Cigarette Tricks, Pimple Zoo, Big Chief, were all nice short ideas. Closer you are had some great ideas and I almost wish it went on longer. I see what they were going for with auditorium, but it hurt my brain. Motor away, decent, Hit, well, it is certainly a track. My Valuable Hunting Knife: some good guitar, and I liked the percussion. Gold Hick was another intermission esq track that I didn’t have too many thoughts about. King and Caroline was again a decent track with good ideas that I wish was slightly more fleshed out. Striped white jets was awesome!! Just wish again it was longer. Ex supermodel was amazingly melancholy! Blimps go 90 was a nice switch up of instrumentation. Chicken Blows was strange and Little Whirl was aptly named. My son Cool was good and Alright was an awesome closer. Loved it. This is a hard one to rate for me as I loved a lot of the ideas, but that’s just what they are, ideas. There are very few fleshed out full tracks on this album. 4/5 ⭐️, for what it was. 66/1089
It’s good but this is really a demo tape. Lose half the songs and develop the others.
Musical whiplash. This isn't so much an album, it feels more like someone recording song ideas on their phone to later be fleshed out into something more complete. There are probably kernels of good ideas here but they come in, hit and move onto something else so quickly that its hard to feel like anything is sticking. I mean, how could I live without the profound revelation of "Chicken blows. I suppose we could have a girl or a boy". If Pollard is guided by voices perhaps he should tell them to be quiet.
Guitar chords, vocal melodies, and lyrics all appear to have been selected at random by rolling dice on a table of entries that all hate you. The best thing about this album is that none of the tracks are over 3 minutes long, and a bunch of them are less than a minute. Unfortunately, that's still too long.
Would’ve been nice if they finished some of the songs they started.
Very psychedelic and weird in places. It had a lot of potential but the execution was slightly off imo
Jamming in a garage with my friends. That's what this reminds me of. The joy and freedom. It was probably more fun to play than to listen to. I like the overall vibe of this album, but I'm didn't find myself attached to much of it.
It is ok. Otro disco de infinitas canciones de menos de 1 minuto. Aunque tuvo bits interesante, que sean tan cortas e inconexas no me ayuda a conectar con ningún tema. Fue como escuchar un soundtrack, lo cual it ok, pero no me aporta lo que suelo buscar en un disco.
To me this has so much wasted potential - if these songs were fleshed out a bit more, recorded a bit better and lengthened this could be great. Game of Pricks is a great song as it is though.
sounds like a beatles tribute act
es fome siento que ya llevo la mitad y ni fuma canción me hizo volver a la app y revisar el nombre
Confused, too many songs and too many influences
28 nummers, 41 minuten. Deze gasten zijn duidelijk naar de Hang Youth school van muziek schrijven geweest mijn god. En net als Hang Youth, ik ben er niet zo weg van. Het is veel distortion, vaak alleen het zingen van de titel en ik ben daar niet zo weg van. Het voelt als een gimmick die vrij snel uitgespeeld is en dan ben je alleen met een album dat eigenlijjk niet helemaal 'af' voelt. Het is een hoop, maar het grootste deel vind ik gewoon niet heel erg spannend. Heb ook sterk het idee dat dit een novelty album is in plaats van dat dit echt iets vernieuwend doet. Beetje jammer, maar je kan niet altijd 6 gooien. Pfoe, de zanger is echt heel matig ook en een nummer als Gold Hick, goed opletten want hij duurt maar 30 seconden, is gewoon echt heel slecht. De opname klinkt ook niet helemaal goed, lijkt wel alsof ze dit op een iPhone hebben opgenomen, maar dan wel een hele oude want de kwaliteit is niet super... Nee dit is een album waarvan misschien 4 nummers echt interessant zijn, 12 niet interessant en dan nog 12 die gewoon niet goed zijn... Dat is voor mij echt te weinig en zelfs de interessante muziek word compleet onduit gehaald door de matige opnamekwaliteit. De leider heeft gegrapt dat zonder het bier er ongeveer 10 dollar was uitgegeven aan dit album. Dat hoor je, en daar is eigenlijk alles mee gezegd... Wat een matig album.
Word art album cover/10
Guided by voices to kill myself. 4/10
Many short songs that seem unfinished and unpolished. A lot of them sound the same and are kind of annoying. Some reminded me of Weezer. (2)
I quite liked this, but when everything is so short there isn’t much to get your teeth into. Half the songs for twice as long would be better.
No well played, nothing new, voice not so good.
Ok
Wish the tracks were longer, feels more like sketch book then a album but good all the same ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Chill guys got my 5
Guided by Voices intentionally curated a lo-fi sound, but this album feels like a demo tape. There are 28 songs in 41 minutes, and they all feel underdeveloped because they are so short. They’re like micro songs. Which, in the end, turned out to be a blessing because the lead singer’s voice started to grate by song 18.
Surprisingly amamzing album short songs all different and continuous. Really good pace did not expect this at all. Very good album
Eh I just had Kendrick and discovered Nick Cave through this the other day as well, so my standards felt pretty high. And then I also happened to read that this band got a $100,000 advance for this album that sounds like it was recorded with a Blue Yeti microphone. So yeah 🖕 u Guided By Voices, Listend By Noone, it should've been me instead, learn to finish your songs.
Aaaand even more mid stuff. A lot of the stuff on this list is literally so random and doesn't seem influential or epic enough to be listened to. It's just very boring music.
Quite interesting album of short fairly unusual tracks. 28 songs in 41 mins makes a change from the last one that was 4 tracks in over an hour.
Trudno to ocenić, bo to jest muzyczny szkicownik, a nie album, dużo utworów krótkich, nieskończonych, urywanych. Niektóre naprawdę dobre, inne to jakieś nieudane próby stworzenia dobrego kawałka. Sama nie wiem... chyba 5/10
Stoner/garage rock. Would have given it 3/5 except for the track with snoring in the background.
Nothing special. It may have been a first, but it's generally poor
Boring </3
A very large number of weird, catchy little songs that would sound like they're from 1965 except they're all obscured by a hail of fuzzy, discordant noise. And they're all just a minute or two long, so nothing drags on. 5 stars, I love this record.
Feels unfinished
I really wanted to, and expected to, like this more. I like a couple of Guided by Voices songs but wasn't familiar with their catalog. That fact, the era that they're from (mid-90s), and the lengths of many of the songs (I'm a sucker for a short track) really raised my hopes. But in the end I found the music grating almost to the point of annoyance (was there a recording of someone snoring playing along with one of the songs) and the rapid fire nature of the songs made me anxious. They were short but most of them felt incomplete. Like they were a series of unfinished ideas than polished songs.
Best Track - "Game Of Pricks"
I never got past at least track 20 on previous listens of this, but now that I've heard it twice in full, I can now say that I do enjoy this as a whole. Not every song gets the check from me, but the majority of this is filled with straight to the point lo-fi indie rock that I take much inspiration from. This and Bee Thousand are effectively a highlight on Robert Pollard (and Tobin Sprout's) songwriting. I can understand why this isn't everyone's cup of tea and why the argument to not have it on this list exists. But to me, this is seminal art that serves as a pioneer recording for the later indie rock bloom of the 2000s. I mean, The Strokes absolutely loved these guys. I think my own relation to this album justifies my rating for it (8/10, 5/5 on this scale)
What a weird little grunge album
It was good. It's interesting how many songs were in the album and how short some of the songs were. There were a lot of weird sounds on there, some that I liked and some I didn't. My favorite was probably "as we go up, we go down"
It’s like an album full of sketches of songs. Maybe if they finished half of them and left the other half on the cutting room floor.
This album is what if the Beatles started out in a slacker, lo-fi college band in the midwest in the 80s and their album is full of some oddly groovy tracks that sound likely demos (this is a compliment) Each song is short but feels distinct and not repetitive. Overall, a surprisingly fun album that might not be for everyone due to the lo-fi quality
This was actually really cool. I want to try and recreate the vocal tone for some of my own stuff.
Perfect classic album
נשמע טוב אבל גם מעצבן והשירים יותר מידי קצרים
פשוט מלא שטויות. אני מת על מוזיקת שטויות
Amazing lyrics. Amazing vibe. Going to listen again to appreciate it more, felt repetitive at times but more listens could give me another perspective.
If I wanted a bunch of quick songs, I could put on Anal Cunt. Never really got into this.
Meh
Ehhh, not sure the a whole a bunch of real short songs shtick works in this sort of indie lo-fi style. Made the project feel incomplete. That shit only works for punk albums or Anal Cunt.
3.5 I like the idea of 27 songs over 41 minutes but it becomes a bit too disjointed.
The album is overall alright, but it's definitely just okay for background listening and is not that exciting when properly focusing on it. There are quite a lot of songs that are really short, but the overall length of the rest of the songs is not very long either. I guess they were just having fun putting music together.
Another of the bands I've heard of, but know nothing about. When I first heard the name I assumed GBV was an a capella group doing Christian songs. Then I'd read somewhere that they were more alt rock, which seemed strange. But I never actually gave them a listen. So, I was interested in giving them a listen today. The generally low rating on the site didn't worry me, as I often like albums more than the averages. Initially I was enjoying the songs, but was feeling frustrated that some were so short that they never really got going. There were a few of the longer ones (comparatively) that I liked and appreciated the over two minutes that they were given. After a while it all just blended together for me and I think I felt more annoyed than anything else. I'm perfectly happy with two minute songs. An awesome burst of power pop or power punk doesn't need much more than that. But 18 seconds? 30 seconds? 42 seconds? C'mon guys. Give us a little more than that.
Una especie de rock indie lo fi. En vez de canciones son como ideas, lo que lo vuelvo por momentos repetitivos sonoramente. Aunque si hay canciones que rompen con lo preestablecido en el álbum. Un sonido interesante a pesar de ser bastante común en cuanto a instrumentos y arreglos. Likes: A salty salute - They're not witches - A good flying bird - My valuable Hunting Knife - ExSupermodel - Chicken Blows
I was hoping the majesty of Motor Away would be enough to give them an average above 3.0 but sadly not. Way more ideas than you have language to tell me hurts your ears. Maybe there is too much greatness here to digest in one day. That's what I am telling myself.
Don’t know if they were purposefully trying something unique here or if they just couldn’t write a song over 1.5 minutes but I thought it was pretty fun. 4 stars
Never heard of them, and the music was a bit “nothing” to me. Wouldn’t listen again.
sounds weird and unfinished
I liked this album and I know the form is part of what makes it notable, but ultimately the short songs and Lofi production left me wanting more
It’s… fine? Not sure it deserves a place on this list though… I’m starting to wonder if “500 Albums you must hear before you die” would have been a better title for the book.
oh yeh! I love GBV! But, IMHO, this is not one of their better LPs. Robert Pollard, the only constant member, has almost 3,000 songs registered to his name with BMI. GBV have recorded 42 LPs and 21 EPs. Pollard went to Wright State University in Fairborn, Ohio, where he once pitched a no-hitter for the baseball team.
This album felt like the band's stream of musical consciousness. Each song vaguely familiar, almost like it was a cover band playing the greatest hits of the 1990's each with its own rendition. It's obvious these guys have superb songwriting and pop sensibilities. Several of these songs sounded like something Paul McCarney was doodling in the studio to his Beatles bandmates, waiting for them to catch up to him. I also loved the format of the album, almost like the band was constantly hitting shuffle, just when the hook of one song would begin to get stuck in your head, another 2 minute masterpiece would come on to steal your attention. The 4 track, simplicity of the recording also adds to the overall aesthetic of this album, its like being caught in a stoned, 90's grunge daydream you just don't want to end. Listened to this 3 times and will certainly go back for more.
I’ve heard the name Guided By Voices for years, but I don’t think I could have attached any context to the name; I couldn’t have named a single song, what genre they were, or even what era they were from. So, this is yet another huge oversight because this is right up my alley. Dirty, dusty, gritty, lo-fi, noisy, fuzzy, experimental, grungy, indie rock. I think I’m going to dive into the rest of their discography today too.
oh fuck fuck fuck my username wasnt unique fuck FUCK fuck fuck
Lots of short songs with a lot of energy. Going to have to dig into this "band"
sounds ok
3 or so amazing tunes
starts fine, but begins getting boring by the 3rd song. feels like flipping through radio stations or skipping through random songs on spotify. If this was more concise and thought out there might actually be a good album here, but it just feels like someones notes app. It needed more time to cook. Since everything is so short it feels like an album full of interludes
ALL OVER. proto punk? some rock.
FAVs; As we go up we go down, Chicken Blows, Always Crush me. very short songs. getting the whole lo-fi thing. Theres a song where someone is snoring the whole song? Ex Supermodel. i don't like it, but also weird i kinda like it. you can totally tell this is early indie. indie rock, alternative rock and lofi, influenced by the stylings of the British Invasion and progressive rock. 1980s Slacker Rock - Guided by Voices who formed in 1983 and treated low-fidelity analog recording as an intentional musical aesthetic, which had previously been viewed as a negative technological limitation. Late 1980s to early 1990s, the American lo-fi movement began to gain prominence in the alternative and DIY underground music scene, with the sound evolving into a distinct indie rock genre popularized by bands like Pavement. Later bands like Built to Spill 1990s Beck 2010s, slacker rock experienced a revival spearheaded by artists like Mac DeMarco, Alex G and Car Seat Headrest, as well as artists like Kurt Vile, Vivian Girls, Courtney Barnett, and Ovlov. Subsequently, slacker rock's resurgence would later influence the bedroom pop movement.
I rather liked this despite it coming off as a collection of demos and incomplete songs sprinkled amongst the full songs. I also don't think this band knows how to end a song. Too many times I was left hanging or feeling like the song needed a bit more to resolve and end it. But for those things, this might have been a 4.
Some great moments in this album, and hard to argue with their influence on the scene, but there shouldn’t be multiple 70 second songs that bore you
the first draft of a bunch of really good songs it feels like
The short length of the tracks was very jarring
Don’t get it. Why are some of these albums on a list
Sounds unfinished
probably best album so far
The songs were short if not good. A couple of songs were ok but the rest were forgettable. Not bad but just not catchy or interesting.
expected much worse from the band and album names, so was pleasantly surprised at the jump. overall not offensive just a bit mid and unpolished
Normally for an album that gives me a headache I give 2 stars. This is getting one. Why? Because they're clearly musical ability that they're ignoring in favor just creating a schizophrenic cavalcade of noise at times. One song has long snoring dubbed over it for gods sake. Don't try again boys.
it is eh
This was pretty rubbish. One of the 'songs' has someone snoring throughout it ? An assault on the ears at times
Not for me!
I saw GBV live a few years ago and it was easily one of the most raucous and loudest concerts I’ve ever been to. Bob Pollard, in his early/mid-60s at the time, gave every hipster in there a run for their money. A total beer-soaked blast. Given the amount of output from this band, it’s impossible to keep up. But this ranks as one of the band’s best. Motor Away a particular favorite of mine.
Kind of cool indie rock but there's some stuff here that I feel like adds nothing. The positive of having a bunch of short songs though is that it's a lot more entertaining
8/10
cute
Remember those 2000s low effort picture slideshow videos on YouTube. You know, the ones with several low quality photos of high school students, college students, or family reunions? Now, remember how there would be a random playlist of Rock music set to these slideshows which seemed to have no continuity with each other? That is this album. Favorite Track: "Watch Me Jumpstart".
- du alt rock relativement accessible, j’aime beaucoup les paroles - not bad but not great - meilleure chanson: as we go up, we go down
For anyone who enjoys lo-fi indie rock with a raw, sloppy, and unpolished sound, this album will hit the spot. It’s similar to Pavement, but much more stripped down, with a rough, basement recorded feel. At 40 minutes long with 28 tracks, everything is short, punchy, and straight to the point. The whole album feels like a collage of fragmented sketches stitched together, and it carries a playful, nostalgic vibe that really takes you back to the 90s.
not their biggest fans
2.5
Ik had verwacht dat ik dit wel een leuk album zou vinden, maar ik vond het erg saai. Wel geinig dat het veel korte liedjes waren
out of the twenty eight tracks here, i think "always crush me" might be one of the only songs that made my ears perk up because i *really* like the guitar tone which plays to the distorted strength of lo-fi. the rest of this though? absolutely miserable. some of the most grating whiny singing i've heard in a minute. this is basically a demo album. it's a disjointed scattershot mess of half-baked ideas thrown at the wall then discarded just as quickly. this is the unfinished rough draft of a maybe decent album that for some reason they gave to the famed mastering engineer bob ludwig to make any of this listenable. audio engineering is such an art and a skill. it's unfortunate that it was talent wasted here.
Sounds like listening to the unfinished work of a quite good lo-fi indie rock band. Unfortunately the mixing here easily crosses from good lo-fi to that kind of muddy, messiness that feels like it detracts from everything else, and that's quite sad because I do like some of what's on here. It's like hearing a first draft of a great rock album, The edges in areas adds to it but mostly leave it feeling undeveloped. I really like "as we go up, we go down", sounds like something a band that are acolytes of REM would make. But once again it sounds like listening to half a song. It's annoying because what I like here I really like, but it really does sound like someone released a half-finished album. "Temptation creeps to you like rapists in the night" is a lyric so terrible I am knocking an entire star off though.
I liked that the songs were short, but nothing amazing. 5/10
Surprised by how varied this was. Also didn’t realize I’d heard some of this band before.
Don’t know what to make of this thing. Could be one star, could be four. I think conceptually I like an album with songs that are all under 2 minutes, most under 1:30. But if I’m talking about length, then the album didn’t leave much impression
I assume there are hundreds of bands from the 90’s that have a similar sound. That’s not a complaint.
Not great
This was not fun
Typical 90’s garage-indie rock. Nice rdrive in some of the songs, but also quite average overall.
Yet another album I didn't need to hear before I die.
how come i never liked this? i guess it's just not depressing enough and the songs stop once they get started
Highly influential to independent music to come, and even some of this sound would make it into the zeitgeist of the years to follow. Not feeling it however.
Bizarre album but enjoyed it. Wished some songs were longer. Standout songs: Watch me jumpstart Motor away Striped white jets My son cool
It has its moments but it is hard to get over the extremely low-fi production. It sounds like a demo tape for many songs. When they actually finish a song it is interesting but there is too much crap to wade through to get to it.
< the Beatles It's not a race, guys
This one felt like a series of demos from a band trying really hard to find an identity. They landed somewhere between British Invasion and Weezer, and there are some cool (albeit brief) sounds in some of the 20+ 90-second songs. I felt like the only cohesive theme was disorder and confusion.
Hver gang jeg leser "Guided by Voices," tenker jeg det er et synthpop-band fra 80-tallet. Jeg har for lengst funnet ut av at det ikke er det, men informasjonen sitter ikke, så jeg blir usikker hver gang de dukker opp: er dette det bandet jeg tror er et synthpop-band fra 80-tallet men som faktisk ikke er det? Og de er jo det. Jeg tror også jeg har hørt Bee Thousand før, uten at jeg kan si noe om hvordan den skiva var. Men nå hører jeg altså på Alien Lanes, som jeg definitivt aldri har hørt før, og som kom rett etter Bee Thousand. Skiva har 28 låter, men er vanlig LP-lengde. Er dette punk? Grindcore? Det er jo litt punka, men definitivt ikke punk. Det er nok slacker rock, ja. Det er kult, men jeg får inntrykk av at de kanskje burde satt seg ned å skrive 10 låter i stedet, så hadde jeg kanskje husket noen av dem etter det var over. Men det er kanskje ikke poenget. Det skal være litt slapt: et blankt canvas som skal fylles med improvisert lo-fi gitar. Rundt Game of Pricks begynner jeg å bli overbevist om at dette også er en effektiv måte å lage indie rock på. Og de har jo noen Låter innimellom, deriblant Motor Away. Det er en spontan og kreativ tilnærming til låt- og albumskriving som skyr perfeksjon & konvensjonelle smaksdommer uten å ta en U-sving inn i Plink Plonk Land; å experimentere fritt og se hva som sitter. Hvis man ikke vet hvordan en låt skal avsluttes, bare fader vi den ut. Det er ikke helt Double Nickels on the Time levler av briljans — D. Boon er sterkere på riff & låtskriving — men Guided By Voices fokuserer mer på texturer enn Minutemen. Akkurat som Double Nickels, regner jeg med at dette er en skive som belønner gjentatte lytt; potensielt et White Album-type album i single LP-format, noe som gjør at det egentlig ikke kvalifiserer, fordi med kun 40 minutter spilletid, er det bare haters som vil beskylde skiva for å være for lang.
Jeg trodde også lenge at Guided By Voices var en synthgruppe fra 80-tallet, men jeg trodde det frem til i dag. Jeg trodde også at Alien Lanes bare hadde masse bonusspor, helt til jeg så at det var vanlig lengde på plata. Plata minner meg litt om 69 Love Songs, og er en øvelse i effektiv låtskriving. Det funker overraskende ofte, men det er de låtene som er lenger som treffer meg best. "Game of Pricks" er helt fantastisk og jeg måtte spille den flere ganger før jeg gikk videre. "Motor Away" og "Blimps Go 90" er også høydepunkter. Det høye antallet låter føles ikke stressende, men en del av de mer eksperimentelle låtene bikker nesten over i novelty (særlig "Ex-Supermodel" og "Gold Hick". Selv om plata kun er 40 min ish, så føles det som den kunne vært strammet opp litt. At de bedre låtene hadde fått noen ekstra sekunder og kutta noe novelty fra plata. Det blir litt som skits. Og jeg elsker jo skranglete plater, men mot slutten høres det litt for øvingslokale ut. Men alt i alt en veldig fornøyelig plate fra et band som jeg vil høre mer av.
Billed as an English lo-fi band. Musically, this is all over the place. Some tracks were hard acid rock, some were in the style of The Beatles, and others were truly lo-fi. There were 28 tracks on this album spanning 41 minutes, so if something wasn’t good, I didn’t have to wait long for it to go away. Fun at times, but unfocused. 3/5
8.5/10
Jag brukar gilla "dålig" produktion. Men detta gick steget längre så det lät som det bara var något fel på skiten. Dessutom väldigt generiskt
Yeah I like it. Got some fun tunes
A couple of these guys also recorded with Boston Spaceships - I dearly loved their Let it Beard album.
I dunno! Didn't grab me as hard as I hoped but I also didn't have time to give it my full attention either.
An odd selection, and hard to imagine what their seven/eight previous albums must have sounded like, given the demo-tape-style sampler of this album seems much more of a debut offering than a fairly long-lived band. I'm not sure I'd go as far as Christgau's Dud rating, but I have to agree that this album doesn't do much for me. A few songs seemed kind of interesting--the opener "A salty salute", the Beatles-inspired "As we go up, we go down", "Closer you are", and a few others amongst the 28 tracks--but all ended long before they really ever got anywhere (yet somehow this album felt like it was *so* much longer than 41 minutes). And while some people apparently liked the extremely low-quality basement 4-track production, it just makes the whole thing feel that much more...disappointing, I guess. Impressive that they got their label Matador to front them $100K for this, although it probably wasn't exactly what they expected.
Very torn; they're certainly 4-star worthy (see Glad Girls) but only Watch Me Jumpstart gets me here. I guess I have to keep in mind that when this album came up, as much as I thought I liked Glad Girls, I still had them confused with Luna which is so f'ed up that it's kind of a strike against them. I'd blame myself but this isn't about me, is it?
This was not for me. DNF.
Visos dainos susilieja į vieną. Pakankamai trumpos, skamba lyg nepabaigtos.
This is so close to being my kind of thing. I like the roughness of it. I like the readiness to try out ideas. I didn't think I could complain that the songs are too short. But... they are too short, and I wish some of them had been given a bit more space to grow. I might have loved it then
its good but I feel like the songs are too short to actually be completely enjoyable
Interesting but not my thing.
Vind weer rock beetje saai worden nu paar dagen achter elkaar. Niet echt iets bijzonders hier aan imo
Poh dit vond ik wel echt niet enerverend
Super quirky, but I liked it. All of the songs are super short and the styles are all over the place. Some songs almost gave me a Beatles feel to them, while others had an early punk feel. I enjoyed this one!
I liked the short sharp multitude of songs. It allowed each idea to be presented without waste and then onto the next one. You can also see how it fit into the surrounding landscape where pixies and lemonleads were prevalent, i dont know timelines about who influenced whom but its part of a movement that had coherence, but not one im particularly wedded to On reflection, i managed 2 listens and was only engaged on an academic side, i didnt warm to this regardless of its merit.
una casi me gusta
Lousy songs recorded on a toaster. What even is this?
3/5
3,5
It had moments, but it felt like they just rushed to get stuff recorded rather than work though building the quality of those good moments, that could have been great.
Felt like I was listening to a bunch of British radio demos. Such a weird album structure but the music itself was not noteworthy
Listened to this when I didn’t have any sleep and was trying to hold myself together to cook some food. Not my favourite music and feels more like what I expect from a radio station which is still nice.
Beatles influenced US lo-fi 90s rock. 7ish
Decent, listenable, occasionally very good.
Alien Lanes feels like rifling through someone’s notebook full of half-finished ideas and discovering that most of them are brilliant. It is scrappy, messy, and defiantly unpolished, but that roughness is exactly what gives it its charm. Songs appear, explode with melody or attitude, and vanish before they have time to wear out their welcome, creating a constant sense of momentum and surprise. What I love about it is how effortlessly it throws out hooks without making a big deal of them. There is no polish, no grand statement, just sharp pop instincts buried under lo-fi noise and sudden shifts. The album feels playful and restless, always moving forward, and even when a track barely lasts a minute, it often leaves a stronger impression than far longer, more carefully constructed songs elsewhere.
Not really my favorite, but not terrible.
I love how Guided By Voices albums go from sounding like they recorded a song through an intercom, to the next track being one with full studio production. Just get the song down, no matter the cost! I really like this album, but band regularly covers Game Of Pricks. America’s answer to The Fall.
What the??? So bad.
Hay un par de canciones por ahí que me gustaron y que milagrosamente cruzan la barrera del minuto de duración, porque, en este disco, la mayoría de los tracks duran apenas algunos segundos. Así que no entiendo muy bien el sentido de hacer canciones que se escuchan que pudieron ser gloriosas, y dejarlas solamente de 50 segundos o por ahí. Y todo fue un fastidio cuando llegó la canción en la que todo el tiempo el cantante hace ruidos como de indio piel roja con la boca. Rarísimo. No fui fan.
Sounds so old. Like mummified post punk
i really liked this album. it’s a really good garage, psychedelic rock album. perfect chill music. pretty long album in terms of number of tracks, but some of them are only like 30 sec long. overall enjoyed a lot and was much needed familiarity after getting a series of albums that aren’t my typical sound rating: 8/10 favorite track: a good flying bird
looks like its just a bunch of unfinished songs thrown together into one album. It wasn't horrible but lacks in direction and it didn't interest me all that much.
The vocals are unpleasant to listen to. The instrumentals are boring. On a technical level, the audio sounds like shit (and saying that it's on purpose doesn't make it any better). There are so many tracks on this album that sound so unpolished, it's like I'm listening to someone ramble incoherently over random noise. 28 tracks on this album and they're all awful.
17th album with group. I love lo-fi stuff. I’ve always thought music was better when it was a little raw. For example, Helter Skelter is the best Beatles song. Great album I’ve never heard of before. Good Songs - A Salty Salute, Evil Speakers, Watch Me Jumpstart, They’re Not Witches, As We Go Up, We Go Down, (I Wanna Be A) Dumbcharger, Game of Pricks, The Ugly Vision, A Good Flying Bird, Cigarette Tricks, Pimple Zoo, Big Chief Chinese Restaurant, Closer You Are, Auditorium, Motor Away, Hit, My Valuable Hunting Knife, Gold Hick, King and Caroline, Striped White Jets, Ex-Supermodel, Blimps Go 90, Strawdogs, Chicken Blows, Little Whirl, My Son Cool, Always Crush Me, and Alright. Bad Songs - Nothing.
1995, une année charnière. On se prenait la vague trip-hop, le post-rock commençait à pointer le bout de son nez cérébral, et au milieu de tout ça, il y avait ces types de l'Ohio. Guided By Voices, une anomalie, un bug dans la matrice de l'industrie musicale qui commençait à se prendre beaucoup trop au sérieux. On s'attaque aujourd'hui à "Alien Lanes", leur "grand" début chez Matador. Je mets "grand" entre guillemets, parce que si on parle de son, on est plus proche du dictaphone posé sur la cuvette des chiottes que du "Dark Side of the Moon". Et c'est là tout le paradoxe, n'est-ce pas ? On est face à un album culte, vénéré par une secte de fans prêts à vendre leur mère pour une face B inédite de Robert Pollard, et moi avec mon vécu, mes oreilles nourries au post-punk glacial et aux murs de sons, je lui colle un 3 sur 5. Un "mouais" poli, un "c'est sympa, mais on ne va pas en faire un fromage". Mais commençons par le commencement qui se nomme Robert Pollard. Ce type est une légende, c'est vrai. L'instituteur alcoolique qui a écrit plus de chansons qu'il n'y a d'étoiles dans le ciel, enregistrant des chefs-d'œuvre pop dans son sous-sol en buvant de la bière bon marché. L'image est belle, romantique même. C'est le mythe ultime de l'indie rock : le génie incompris qui n'a pas besoin de studio à un million de dollars pour pondre des mélodies qui te collent au cerveau. Sur le papier, c'est séduisant. Dans les faits, "Alien Lanes", c'est 28 morceaux en 41 minutes. Fais le calcul... c'est du zapping. C'est l'équivalent musical d'un mec bourré qui change de chaîne toutes les 90 secondes parce qu'il s'ennuie devant sa propre télé. Le problème avec cet album, et c'est ce qui justifie ma note moyenne, c'est cette frustration permanente. Tu écoutes "Game of Pricks", c'est un tube absolu, une mélodie imparable, une urgence punk, un truc qui aurait pu être un hymne générationnel si ça avait été produit par Butch Vig et joué par Nirvana. Mais non. Ça dure une minute trente, ça sonne comme si la batterie était faite avec des cartons de pizza vides, et paf, c'est fini on passe à autre chose. C'est du coït interrompu musical. Pour un mec comme moi, qui apprécie les montées en puissance ou les architectures sonores complexes, cette approche "je balance une idée et je me barre" peut être agaçante. Voire franchement énervante. Il y a un côté "brouillon de génie" qui est à la fois la force et la faiblesse de l'album. C'est l'anti-post-rock par excellence. Là où le post-rock prend dix minutes pour installer une ambiance, Pollard a déjà joué quatre morceaux, ouvert trois bières et écrit deux autres albums. "Motor Away", c'est pareil, c'est grandiose, ça donne envie de prendre la route, de crier à la fenêtre, c'est l'essence du rock américain... mais c'est noyé dans ce souffle tape-à-l'œil, cette esthétique Lo-Fi qui, en 1995, commençait déjà à devenir une posture. On ne va pas se mentir, il y a aussi un côté un peu foutage de gueule. Certains intermèdes sur l'album ne sont rien d'autre que du bruit, des délires de studio (enfin, de garage) qui n'apportent pas grand-chose. C'est le syndrome du "regardez comme je suis prolifique et spontané". Ouais, Robert, c'est super, mais parfois, un peu d'édition, ça ne fait pas de mal. Quand on écoute "Alien Lanes" d'une traite, on a l'impression de fouiller dans les poubelles d'un génie de la pop. On trouve des diamants, c'est indéniable, mais il faut écarter pas mal de pelures d'oignon et de vieux marcs de café pour les atteindre. Et puis, parlons de mes goûts. Moi qui aime Nick Cave, la profondeur, le drame, la noirceur théâtrale. Ici, on est dans l'instantanéité pure, dans le collage pop surréaliste. Il n'y a pas cette gravité que je cherche. C'est léger, c'est fun, c'est bordélique. C'est un disque de potes, un disque de fête de fin de soirée quand tout le monde est un peu trop éméché et chante faux. C'est attachant, mais est-ce que c'est essentiel ? Est-ce que c'est un album que j'emporterai sur une île déserte ? Probablement pas, d'où le 3/5. C'est la note du disque qu'on garde dans sa collection par respect historique, ou pour ces trois ou quatre pépites pop parfaites, mais qu'on ne sort pas religieusement le dimanche matin. Cependant, il ne faut pas être trop cynique. En 1995, sortir ça chez Matador, c'était un beau doigt d'honneur à la surproduction ambiante. C'était dire : "La chanson prime sur le son". Et quand la chanson est là, bon sang, elle est là. Il y a une mélancolie sous-jacente chez GBV, une sorte de nostalgie d'une Angleterre fantasmée (ils sonnent plus British que les Anglais par moments), qui touche juste. C'est de la "British Invasion" filtrée par l'ennui du Midwest américain. Mais au final l'album souffre de son concept. À force de vouloir faire court, lo-fi et fragmenté, on perd l'immersion. On ne rentre jamais vraiment dedans. On reste à la surface, à surfer sur ces vagues de parasites et de guitares saturées. Pour un auditeur exigeant, habitué aux cathédrales sonores, "Alien Lanes" ressemble à une cabane de jardin construite de bric et de broc. C'est charmant, ça tient debout par miracle, mais on n'a pas forcément envie d'y habiter. Alors oui, c'est un album important. Il a décomplexé des milliers de gamins qui n'avaient pas de thunes pour se payer un studio. Il a prouvé qu'on pouvait être des rock stars en étant profs le jour et piliers de bar le soir. Mais musicalement, avec le recul, c'est une collection de vignettes. C'est un carnet de croquis. Certains croquis sont sublimes, dignes d'être encadrés, d'autres sont juste des gribouillages dans la marge. Mon 3/5 sanctionne l'inconstance. Il sanctionne le fait que pour chaque "Motor Away", tu dois te taper un "Ex-Supermodel" qui ne mènent nulle part. C'est la note de la raison face à la hype. C'est la note du disquaire qui en a vu d'autres et qui ne se laisse pas aveugler par l'étiquette "Culte" collée sur la pochette. En résumé, "Alien Lanes", c'est comme cette soirée où tu t'es bien marré, tu as bu des coups, tu as chanté, mais le lendemain matin, tu as un peu mal au crâne et tu as du mal à te souvenir de ce qui s'est vraiment passé de marquant. C'est fun, c'est cool, mais c'est de la pop en kit, à monter soi-même. Et parfois, on a juste la flemme de chercher le tournevis. Allez, on range ça dans la case "Sympathique mais dispensable" et on passe à quelque chose de plus consistant.
what am i supposed to do with this
There are some decent songs on it, but there are a lot that just kind of grate on your ears.
Agreeable listen
Didn't enjoy the 28 songs in 40 odd minutes. What was there was ok, just didn't work as an album for me.
28 songs in 41 minutes is fairly impressive. Unfortunately that was the most impressive thing about the album
Songs too short , too many - 1
A collection of extremely short, hissy-mixed tunes. Not too bad, but not really great or for me. Always Crush Me was especially bad. I was glad when I noticed that it was nearly the end
At first I thought this was okay... as the album went on and I got to the 20th or so song I lost interest. To many blah songs that all sound the same.
Fun album, tickles the right spots for me - garage/slacker rock, reminiscent of Dinosaur Jr or Pavement or maybe early Ween. For sure messy in places and plenty of forgettable tracks, but when the filler is short, it doesnt really matter that much. 3.6/5
Really nice
I enjoyed listening to that, though there was a lot or random, less than a minute songs.
It's like novocaine. Just give it time, always works. This record embodies the 90s too-cool-to-try ethos as well as any. But for my money, this school teacher pounding out half-baked ideas in his garage, stumbling into the odd power pop masterpiece like “Game of Pricks,” is way more rock 'n' roll than anything that came out of the sunset strip in the 80s. Call it hipster propaganda but I really believe it. It's British Invasion, pop and punk—a mixed but joyous grab-bag of great hooks, tape hiss, and nonsense. Took me a few listens but I adore it. Cover sure captures the music.
Has its moments, but I’ll never revisit it.
Love the more lofi production and scrappy approach to recording and songwriting. There’s some good nuggets in here. But it’s just so fleeting. I can see the charm in the rapid fire succession of songs but emotionally it left me wanting. Blink and you miss it. I do still regret not catching them at Kilby though.
Pretty cool!!! I like the lo fi. 3.5
Loud. Unpolished. Beatlesque? Noisy. Experimental. It’s like they had fragments of songs and then added music and recorded it. Even with that, some of them are catchy. My rating 2.5
145/1089 a fine lofi rock/indie album, i kinda like the whole “lots of short songs format” nothing overstayed it’s welcome. However, nothing really GRABBED me, some parts were a bit unpleasant and then there’s the random gay slur… faves: A Salty Salute, Striped White Jets, Blimps Go 90 33/100
Meget ringe lyd på albummet.
First time listening to GMV, and .... Sounds like aa bunch of kids find an unlocked recording studio, and recorded whatever snippets of other folks music they could remember, then scarpered. Amateurish.
Pretty good, but maybe a bit in cohesive
01) A Salty Salute - 7,0 02) Evil Speakers - 6,5 03) Watch Me Jumpstart - 6,5 04) They're Not Witches - 6,0 05) As We Go Up, We Go Down - 6,0 06) (I Wanna Be a) Dumbcharger - 5,5 07) Game of Pricks - 7,0 08) The Ugly Vision - 5,5 09) A Good Flying Bird - 5,5 10) Cigarette Tricks - 2,0 11) Pimple Zoo - 5,0 12) Big Chief Chinese Restaurant - 4,0 13) Closer You Are - 5,5 14) Auditorium - 5,0 15) Motor Away - 5,0 16) Hit - 2,0 17) My Valuable Hunting Knife - 5,5 18) Gold Hick - 2,0 19) King and Caroline - 5,0 20) Striped White Jets - 6,0 21) Ex-Supermodel - 1,0 22) Blimps Go 90 - 6,0 23) Strawdogs - 5,0 24) Chicken Blows - 5,5 25) Little Whirl - 6,0 26) My Son Cool - 5,0 27) Always Crush Me - 5,5 28) Alright - 6,0 TOTAL: 5,09 (51/100) Current ranking: 697/755 So, I have a bunch of song ideas and I'll show you all of them in a quick run through in the next 40 minutes or so! At first you can still concentrate on listening, but then the songs start changing every thirty seconds or so. It's like someone in the passenger seat is constantly changing the radio stations on your car radio and it starts to get so annoying that you just want to throw them out of the car.
I enjoyed it once but not again.
And why is this on the list?
Just sounded like some generic 2000s indie to me
Why is this on the list? It's extremely basic in my opinion. Nothing really grabbed me. Bit of a dud.
Better than anticipated with some quite musical moments. A bit schizophrenic but that’s fine. Probably not one I’ll listen to much.
I'm fond of indie rock, but none of the songs stuck with me. I did enjoy the 90s nostalgia.
Why are we flying through songs? I mean, it's music. Music that sounds like it was made in a garage with cheap software. 28 songs but not even an hour-length is ridiculous, in my opinion. As soon as I start liking a song, disruptive sounds start. Only thing that made me stop was the vocal distortion in Chicken Blows
Awesome! Wasn't expecting to like this as much as I did! Reminds me of a little grungier Neutral Milk Hotel. Will definitely check out more from them!
Meh
Sounds like a weird demo tape. 17 second songs, many of them sounding unfinished. But there is a kernel of truth or greatness in a lot (not all) of them. Makes me wish they edited and refined their work more, and what was an interesting sonic experience could have been a great album. 3⭐️
I appreciate the very classy tactic of flinging as much shit in my face as possible and seeing what sticks. That takes gumption. +1.
Indie as hell. This one was interesting. I grew up around where GBV started and heard about them as these indie giants, but somehow noone was playing these giants. It took me til college to hear them on college radio. I was a bit underwhelmed, but i think you can hear the Shins, the Strokes, etc in their sound. I respect the hell outta them but it just doesn't hit as hard as all those bands i grew up listening to and were clearly inspired by GBV sound.
One incomplete thought after another.
Being from Dayton(ish), GBV conjures the music of my youth. When I hear these tracks, so many parties and hours spent smoking cigarettes on couches at friends’ houses resurface in my mind. Everybody in Dayton still talks about GBV like royalty. Everybody has a story. The earlier the story occurred in history, the more authentically cool and Daytonian you are. I’m too young for any direct stories of my own, and I’d left before their resurgence, but I get the picture. And, frankly, everyone in Dayton should be proud. GBV are an awesome band. They’re so cool, they don’t have ‘full’ songs. Their whole scene is brevity, of catching the fleeting idea like a firefly in a jar, and then moving on to the next idea. Because of this, to me, GBV lack an essential, cohesive narrative line. The band do get points for being unique, though, working in this manner, but to me, no matter how good these snippets are, they can’t pull into a five star category. In other words, their music is fantastic. What a vibe. But, with their commitment to brevity, one feels an aversion to identity. I sense, in their commitment, an aversion to commitment itself! Great for the Daytonian memories, personally, but there’s little else to latch onto, by design.
??? na ja dafür ist 1001 ja da klassiker? neu Endecken, aber ich tu mir schwer...ja das cover ist toll. c
Look you should at least be able to sing before you publish an album.
It sounded like a high school garage band
fine
Independientes alternativos hiperactivos... casi 50 discos a sus espaldas y lo que queda. El lo-fi son ellos. Rechaze imitaciones. Robert Pollard y Tobin Sprout son geniales, únicos e inimitables. Con influencias de Beach Boys (los de finales de los 60´s), REM (esa voz de Pollard), los 60´s de los Who y Small faces, el do it yourself punk, Orange Juice, Beat Happening, Half Japanese... Este fue disco más aclamado aunque el anterior ( Bee Thousand) y el posterior (Under the bushes, under the stars) fueron igual de excelsos. Uno siempre esperaba que cuando cuidaran un poco más su producción entregaran un álbum que por fin la rompiera pero eso era imposible (Mag earwhig! con Albini, Do the collapse con Ocasek...) porque se perdía la magia, a pesar de tener momentos muy muy buenos. Luego ya les perdí un poco la pista porque era imposible seguir su ritmo. Este Alien Lanes presenta apenas esbozos de canciones en algunos casos , la mayoría. ¿Qué es A Good Flying Bird? ¿Auditorium, una demo que ni siquiera llega a esbozo de algo? y ¿My Valuable Hunting Knife? En otros verdaderos himnos como Motor away o Game or Pricks, Little whirl es juguetona como As We Go Up, We Go Down. Chicken Blows es una genial marcianada... Su influencia es enorme: Beck, Yo la tengo, Sebadoh, Pavement, Los Planetas, Automatics, Strokes, White Stripes... Un experiencia imprescindible.
Stream of consciousness rock ‘n’ roll. No other way to describe it.
2.5
After 132 albums, I am loath to assign a 1 or 5 to anything, but this one plumbs the depths. I don't know what voices were guiding them, but their own nonsensical snippets are better without voices. The songs still aren't short enough.
Good Guitar texture Not my kind of audio mixing Good album to zone out with but really just not fully my kind of thing. I think a bit too lo-fi
Started strong but it after the coughing was used in the beat I started to enjoy it less.
I really really really wish I could give this 2.5 stars instead of 3 (rounding up) because it's not really a 3 star album. It's got some interesting stuff, but it's got 10-12 songs too many on here. Just a random sampling of stuff, and after a while it just blurs together. I didn't mind it, but I felt robbed of 40 minutes of my time for music that wasn't all that interesting to me.
Didn't really like
not my favorite lo-fi, alright background music
I think it says a lot that there are no songs on this album that are longer than 3 minutes long. This album sounds like they just pressed record, played for on average 90 seconds, and then moved on to the next one. I cannot find anything good to say about this album, but I wish the band success at their high school's upcoming Battle of the Bands.
The production quality was terrible, and the different players weren't all on the same page for any single song. I felt like this was music that more closely matched the sounds of the '60's, but it was made in the '90's. They also had an annoying habit of hitting these weird discordant off notes. The vocals were really bad too.
181125 11:57 4
the noise is great. but turns out there is such a thing as too much lo-fi
Nice, nerdy and quirky.
I hated this. It was just repetitive, barely melodic noise most of the time. I kept waiting for a good track but they just kept getting worse and worse as the album went on. This sounds like an album a friend of mine recorded on a laptop microphone in 2003 and he had never had a day of musical training in his life. I did not enjoy this in the slightest. It was mercifully short but I still couldn't wait for it to be over. WHY IS THIS ALBUM IN THIS LIST? Is the author just checking to see if anyone's actually listening to these??? One star.
Trash. Would I listen to again? I don't listen to trash.
A few good songs. But generally feels like an unfinished demo. Needs some editing I generally like the melodies and the lo-fi production.
7.2
there are such good parts on here but it feels forgettable... i will have to listen ten or eleven more times
It's like they put together all of their demos and threw them in the media. It's incoherent and not that good.
Er. I mean, if half these songs were finished I think I'd like it more. Although not all of them. It was basically like a sampler from a bunch of decent and quite diverse 60s and 70s bands but... That's not a good album.
oh i really enjoyed this. high 4.
I didn't mind this. Another one though that felt like a bunch of ideas rather than fleshed out songs. But I liked them more than the others that felt like this. I reckon either I'll listen again and really like it, or I'll find another album by them that hits home with me a bit more. But for now it's a high 3.
It was not bad but not great at the same time. Nothing memorable.
Didn't care for it.
It's like an album of rough demos. And not particularly exciting demos.
This has to be the most frustrating album I’ve ever listened to. There are 10-12 really cool song ideas in this 28 song record. But the amount of absolute garbage in between is awful. The whole thing just comes off as exceptionally lazy. Couldn’t bother to finish a single song. Couldn’t bother to record it with any sort of quality production. First album I’m giving the 1/5.
Boring American Rock
𝘈𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘯 𝘓𝘢𝘯𝘦𝘴 sounds gloriously cheap — and that’s exactly its charm. Recorded for the price of a pizza, it’s a lo-fi masterpiece that embraces tape hiss, rough edges, and sudden song fragments as part of its identity. Guided by Voices feel like the ultimate DIY band, the kind you’d imagine uploading to Bandcamp and curating their own RYM profile if the internet had existed in 1995. Beneath the noise, though, are sharp hooks and genuine songwriting brilliance — proof that great ideas don’t need great budgets.
Liked a lot of the songs, but there are so many that it's hard to rememeber any in particular. Stand outs were As We Go Up We Go Down, Game of Pricks, Salty Salute, Auditorium, My Valuable Hunting Knife.
in bob we trust
I panicked when I saw 28 tracks, then calmed down when I saw 41 minutes. What's up with that? Well, it's sloppy lo-fi rock, which is right up my street. I was initially reminded of Home and Hudson Bell. It sounds like this band was recording for fun, which I like a lot. I can't believe they were recording for commercial success or even with much reference to what their contemporaries were doing. This sounds like art in a very pure form, maybe even outsider art. But I think I like the idea behind this more than I like the actual songs. A nice experience, but I don't think I will listen to any of these on their own merits again. I also see a lot of people in the other reviews really hate this album and question its place on the list. But I say that is almost in itself a sign that this is a worthwhile inclusion. This list is about expanding your horizons. Get with it, you squares. On a personal note, this marks the halfway point in reviews I have given. I feel this is a pretty worthy entry for review No. 545.
It's like Grungy Beatles. I like it. I think I can have this in the background.
90's grunge/punk/rock? long album - 28 songs guitar is too loud over vocals :( ended up feeling anxious at the end?
Ble ikke bergtatt. Helt greit
Not as beautifully messy as the previous Bee Thousand. At times it is quite wonderful full of the snippets of brilliance but it feels a bit empty towards the end and seems indulgent despite the brevity of those songs. End 3/4s of the way through and you have enough to be a great album.
Like it. Will listen again
This entry was intriguing. Dug many of the fuzzy lo-fi melodies though 28 songs is waaaaaay too many. Would probably go back to in bits and pieces
I really liked this one. Shades of Green Day, British rock
Lo-fi grunge
Pretty trippy
This was actually a pretty interesting album. Feel like this would be a good one to go learn more about because there was a lot I liked but it just felt kinda unfinished for some reason. Maybe it was all the super short track which I’m sure Vardaan is gonna love