Reviews (page 5 of 8)
There’s a soft spot in my heart for Guided By Voices because of Blimps Go 90. A friend put that song on a bitchin’ mixed CD for me many years ago and it turned me on to this wonderful band. I dig it.
3.2
Grand, the music is great, have to keep in mind it was 1995 is all... Good music for the evening
3/5. A pretty awesome collection of songs. They all sound quite similar which is what brings it down. It feels like one continuous song but broken into 2 minute pieces. It can work, I just don’t remember which one I like the most.
3.75
Guided by Voices had so much potential but it feels like they never quite finished anything. They have a seemingly endless amount of starts to songs but got bored and moved on before they fleshed them out.
Indie rock, lo-fi,power pop ... un poco largo.
They're catchy. woudl be a 4 but these extended editions have too much music.
"Watch Me Jumpstart" and "Always Crush Me" were the standouts. Overall, this was a very good album. For having never heard of these guys, I'd listen to this album again.
It's 1995 already. Snippet format is reallly outdated.
Indie rock
This had moments of being great and then a few of being average. But 28 songs in 41 minutes? No time to get bored I suppose! The occasional Beatlesque tune which I liked. Might check this out further.
There's a song on here where someone is snoring in it. This album is weird. I like that it's just a collection of stuff. But all the fade outs are distracting. A little focus could have made this better. But I get the feeling that was not the goal.
Not a bad indie rock album, I'm just a bit picky about albums that feature a bunch of short songs, and this doesn't check all of my boxes.
Mildly interesting indie rock.
And once again this project introduces me to yet another band I'd not yet heard of or heard before, and that I like. Based on this album at least, they are a band I am sure I would have enjoyed had I heard them in my high school and college years. Anyway, I've heard them now, so I'll go from here. I like their sense of melody. Even though they are performing in what I guess I'd call a garage-rock, alt-rock, or similar style, they are a bit more interesting to my ear than a lot of bands that crowd that space. Unusual to see a full album of such brief tracks. Kind of fun.
Den Namen der Band kenne ich schon, die Musik aber nicht. Ich vermute mal garage rock oder was ähnliches. Ok ja, etwas Richtung Alternative, Britpop, vllt auch Grunge usw. Aber das Album kommt so vor, also ob die Musiker nur 28 Ideen hatten. Ich muss mal zugeben, die sind meistens relativ coole Ideen. Aber die Band hatte auch wahrscheinlich einige sehr komische Regeln dazu: nur eine (1) diesen coolen Ideen pro Lied; sofort ein Lied seine Idee hat, darf weder Wort noch Riff weiter geschrieben werden; und Songs, die über 1:30 laufe eine Sünde sind. Also die Band hat ab und zu gesündigt, aber nur knapp. Und das Album hier ist die Folge. Gefällt es mir? Keine Ahnung. Ich glaube, vielleicht wenn's nicht so -ungeplannt- wird? 3/5.
Humm, interesting one. It’s been a 2 and a 4 for me. I really like the 28 songs in 41mins and enjoyed the silly 60s Kinks-y qualities. But I wish they would have asked and I could have given them another £10 to maybe buy a better mic? Sure is LoFi.
Interesting.
A collection of half-baked song ideas that could be great tracks, but the band was to lazy to weave them into something solid. Still, strangely not an unpleasant listen, but it feels truly incomplete.
good time
Pretty good, 3 stars, didn't stun me but didn't turn me off, either.
Wow I really cannot get into this album. Guided by Voices are new to me. At first I thought 1/2 minute songs were right up my street and I think they would be in other cases because I like that choppy changing thing you can't easily zone out or get bored. But they ended up all melting into one brown pooey lump in my head. What is with the snoring on Ex-Supermodel?? I just don't get it at all. I don't like it, nothing has stood out to me as particularly good until the fiddle on Blimps Go 90 which woke me up a bit to hear something different and this track sounds like it might be in an indie film in the 00s or 2010s something I don't know, I kind of like this track.
Didn't mind it but didn't love it. I do like albums with loads of short tracks on though, just bashing out different sounds
3/5
Short little lofi punkish songs. All the songs are sub 3 minutes so it's kind of hard to tell one from the next and it all blends together. It had it's catchy moments but it would be hard for me to call out one single song or part of the album that stood out.
good ig! canciones cortitas
Having only just hearing about Guided by Voices last week, I am interested to hear what they're all about. Alien Lanes is an album of small ideas. Only a few tracks break the 2-minute mark, which makes the 28-track album not as scary. In true slacker fashion, Guided by Voices embraces a lot of the DIY elements of punk with their lo-fi production and simple songwriting, but borrows from a much less aggressive power pop sound. I can't really say if it left much of an impression on me, but I definitely didn't think it was bad.
68/100: This is background music at best, although maybe my perspective is skewed by the fact that I was in fact listening to this as background music while doing homework. Despite the possible bias, I objectively did not really enjoy this album. The general sound and vibe is just a tad off-putting. If music is a spectrum ranging from art to sound as the two extremes, this album is definitely much closer to the "sound" end of the spectrum. I can vaguely see what sort of album Guided By Voices were going for, but they were misguided if their record label told them they'd achieved that. This album is a lo-fi beats playlist on anti-depressants trying to do too much.
better than average 90's emotions and grunge
Short songs that were fine
Weird but fine. 6/10
Interesting stuff
Rating: 6/10
Enjoyable alt rock album
Really weird format with each song being so short
Il y a des albums qui laissent indifférent. Celui-ci en est un. Toutefois je pense à mon futur moi qui tombera peut-être un jour je ne sais où sur un fan de ce groupe et m'écris donc ici une note pour calmer ses ardeurs : Guided By Voices = du mauvais Beatles enregistré trente ans trop tard.
Je tiens à rajouter à ma critique précédente que ma mauvaise note a pu être impactée par une erreur d'interprétation. Je dois le confesser, en lisant le nom de My Bloody Valentine s'afficher sur le générateur, je m'attendais à retrouver le groupe de hard rock Bullet for my Valentine, qui n'a rien à voir avec l'affligeant spectacle de shoegaze offert par ces mauvais Valentines.
This was very odd, really enjoyed the idea of flicking between radio stations but just not sure this pulled it off
Simple. Elegant. Uninspired? Once or twice is enough probably.
I don't think I'd ever listen to a single track of this on its own, none of them particularly stand out. But, together, it kinda works? 28 songs in 41 minutes is completely mad, but it's good fun, the fact you change tracks every 90 seconds or so means it has this manic energy to it which I like. But don't think I can give anything more than a 3 to an album where I don't really like any of the tracks individually!
Messy, but catchy as hell. I'm more a Do the Collapse era fan, but this was a fun look at how they got there.
Don't like this song? Don't worry a new one will be here in about a minute and a half...seriously, 28 songs, 41 minutes long...Brevity is the soul of Guided Voices it seems.
A lot of great ideas, like the longer moments more though. Strong 3
Some good bits. Some average bits. I do mean bits, because they aren't songs.
If the Beatles and Oasis made a band with less talent
A 28 song, 41 minute album?!? I know nothing about Guiding By Voices other than they play 4 hour concerts and a lot of "music people" I follow seem to love them. I can hear the stuff that is influential on the indie scene. Don't loathe it, but I certainly was kinda hoping it would be done soon.
I was really enjoying this album but the songs were too short, only criticism is I wanted more!
This was fine. I liked how all the songs were short, but it really did not give me a lot to love about this album.
Jangly and sometimes jarring. Feels very low budget but has some quirk good tunes.
Si il font un titre de plus de 3 minutes ils meurent je pense. Bref, rien de mémorable, même si j'ai pas non plus passé un mauvais moment.
Thought it was going to be awful because of the names of the band and album but turned out really liking it
The short tracks (like under two minutes long) don't work well. But there are definitely some good songs there, e.g., "Striped White Jets" or "Blimps Go 90". I think this could be a good alternative rock album if they chose fewer songs and made them into regular-length tracks.
Always interesting, if kind of half baked a lot of the time. That's lo-fi for you, I guess.
I can see myself listening to this again.
3.5
A few good songs. For some reason I always think of GBV as more of a quantity band than a quality band
It was ok. Never heard of this band before. Average 90s indie rock
Indie. Ni fu ni fa.
Short but not too shabby.
Ruidos agradables.
Not herd before. Not too shabby
I am all on board with bands who cannot actually play music or compose songs but these guys take it to another, frustrating level. And yet… I still found myself in admiration of some of the tracks and think that perhaps in time this could grow on me. There’s something compelling nevertheless. A three - for now.
Not crazy about this. Overall nothing really stands out to me
Hi: As We Go Up We Go Down, Good Flying Bird, Little Whirl, Alright Lo: They're Not Witches, Ex-Supermodel Alien Lanes starts off weak, but builds as it goes on...Severely lo-fi, but in some cases (intentionally?) badly recorded...Random analog clicks, pops, connection noises, possible snoring(?), just unwelcome noise in general seemed to invade...I can appreciate lo-fi aesthetic, but there needs to be *some* polish, and I feel like Alien Lanes was recorded without much effort into cleaning up rough recordings. Maybe I've been spoiled by other lo-fi acts such as The Strokes, Pavement, and Sebadoh. On the plus side, there are lots of short, punchy tracks that never feel drawn out, but some are blips as short as 18 seconds. The tracks blend into each other, so there isn't much time to stop and consider what you just heard. Still, it's worthwhile of sifting through some dregs to get to the gems showcased here, there are a few that I'll take with me, but it's tough to recommend this mixed bag.
Fav songs: - Closer You Are
This album should be called ‘Ideas recorded on a cassette player’ because that’s what it sounds like. Saved by some good Beatles-esq melodies!
This sounded like a bunch of unfinished demo tapes or jam sessions. Listenable, and the lo-fi aesthetic is endearing at times, but if feels like a meal consisting solely of appetizers.
these albums with short songs/fragments instead of full blown songs is interesting but ultimately it feels like its missing its potential as every song is just a part of what it could have been.
What I imagine Rubber Soul era Beatles to have sounded like if they had formed a lowfi garage band in the mid 90s
I quite like some of this but it just seems a bit random and pulled together. Like its a really badly compiled mix tape. Theres some decent indie music here though so it still gets a 3/5
Petites píldores melòdiques moltes de les quals prometen molt, però no s'hi acaben desenvolupant. Un notable exercici de lo-fi, però lluny de l'excel.lència
I love the idea of an album full of short vignettes like this. Messy-pretty vibe. Some clever bits here and there musically, with echoes of Big Star. You have to stick with it, because it takes about half a dozen songs or so to get into it. Favorite songs: Motor Away, My Valuable Hunting Knife, Closer You Are
Definitely some indie-pop gems on this album. I will definitely return to it to see if there are some that slipped by on first listen. For now 3.25 but could go higher on subsequent listens
A lot of potentially good songs here, but the aesthetic of just fucking up the recording a bit for the sake of lofi doesn't really do it for me
Lots of short songs. Very 90's early grunge sound. Nothing stood out as great. One or two songs I liked but average other than that.
Few tracks have a very Beatles sound. Short and sharp tracks and considering the amount, surprisingly small amount of shit ones. Liked it a lot.
Solid example of indie/alternative/college rock from mid 90's. My issue is that the songs are too short to be memorable. I like the ideas, but I wish there 1/3 of the number of songs with each being 2 - 3 times longer.
maybe worth another listen, early days of lofi indie
Decent '90s indie rock.
Als Indie noch Indie war... Schöner reduzierter Indie Rock, mit leider manchmal etwas sehr kurzen Stücken.
28 songs?..... Too many songs and the songs are too short Favorites: Salty Salute (a bop) Watch Me Jumpstart As We Go Up, We Go Down The Ugly Vision Motor Away
Sounds like a jam session where an indie band run through snippets of their repertoire but it's actually their full album. Some of the lo-fi indie tracks are appealing (learnt that term from pete's review yesterday) and I enjoyed the album on the whole. I think the format of the album is interesting and is saying something about mass consumerism and the ever depreciating attention span. If they thought that was bad in 1995 then they should get a load of... Sorry, what was I talking about?
Interesting, diverse collection of indie, lo-fi songs. Would be rated higher but there's quite a lot of random crappier songs mixed in with the gems.
I listened to it twice and it started growing on me. Some decent power pop a la REM or Big Star, but I would have like fewer but more developed songs. Some were pretty good, some could have been left off the album.
Quite a disjointed album and quite a challenging listening experience as a result. Having said that I liked the music and the lofi vibe even if it ultimately reminded me of other bands I'd rather listen to. 6.5/10
not to bad.. good listen
Interesting
Could do with lengthening songs and fewer of them
I didn't have time to give this more than a hurried listen. So assuming I'd like it more the second time around, I'll give it that mark. Short songs.
28 Songs? Ja, da wollte man unbedingt jede Skizze in die Bewerbungsmappe knallen, hat man doch so einige sympathisch schräge Kritzeleien zu bieten. Das ist manchmal so herrlich leidenschaftlich wie schrecklich dilettantisch sodass ich schwanke zwischen „OMG!!!“ und „herrje“ Mit zittriger Hand 2.5
Wipers finde ich besser. TLC auch.
On dirait les Beatles qui ont baisé avec les beachboys! Musique tres entraînantes mais ça sonne comme un album très bien réussi pour un garage band et non un chef d’œuvre musical! Je l’évite: Chicken blows, pourquoi chanter avec les doigts dans gueules! Ex-supermodel, les ronflements , Criss de connerie qui diminue la crédibilité et mon appréciation Je lévite l’album est bon dans l’ensemble pas trouver de hits
No conocía a la banda. De primera vista, lista interminable de canciones cortísimas estaba seguro iba a ser punk hardcore o algo similar. Sorpresivamente empezó a sonar rock alternativo... y con una grabación que parecía un bootleg. Se siente improvisado en todos aspectos, parece que esta uno escuchando un ensayo o una sesión de lluvia de ideas de una banda y ese justamente es gran parte siento del encanto que tiene el disco... afortunadamente pasa más allá de ser solo una curiosidad. Detrás del sonido de baja calidad y las canciones de 30 segundos empiezan a salir melodías y más melodías... de hecho melodías muy buenas en algunas ocasiones. En la segunda vuelta todo fue mejorando, se empiezan a apreciar más la forma de las canciones e incluso con solo haberlas escuchado una vez y durando tan poco empieza uno a tararear esas melodías; creo que esto habla muy bien del grupo. Leyendo la historia es muy interesante, al parecer eran una banda local muy prometedora, medio protegidos de Sonic Youth y la disquera les dio presupuesto de sobra pero decidieron grabar solamente con lo que tenían ya en casa y, supuestamente, todo el disco les costó "10 USD." Todo el disco se siente muy honesto y es agradable, a ratos se siente desaprovechado el pensar que pudieran haber sido mucho más grandes pero por lo que leo siempre se sintieron satisfechos siguiendo como una verdadera banda pequeña y hasta la fecha sigue activa la banda (se me ocurrió ver una presentación en vivo y ya después hicieron canciones en forma bien hechas). Disco muy interesante, muy melódico, muy agradable, es bastante más que solo la curiosidad de la banda que graba en verdadero lo-fi, pero tampoco creo que vaya a dejar atónito a nadie.
Bem ok, nada de mais.
n gostei do vocal
My spotify kept messing this up so I missed a few tracks (just refused to play) - but still good
A bit strange in that most of the songs are like 1-2 minutes long. Sound is a little like REM or Whitney, depending on the song. Some songs are musically interesting, but mostly not what I want to listen to casually .
Fav Song: Game of Pricks
old school rock punk type vibes 3.5/5
interesting
meh
Bit of a Doors sound with some punk mixed in and psychedelic undertones
Had some weird Syd Barrett vibes to some of the tracks!
Listened
Boring I wanted it to end
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
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
Eine Ansammlung kurzer und kürzester Stücke ... irgendwie ohne Zusammenhang.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
Alt rock - album has a lot of short songs - I don't know if they ran out of lyrics or got bored? just OK
This album has so much potential if the songs were just longer and mixed and mastered right
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.
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
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.
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.
Couple of good tracks, but on the whole fairly unremarkable for me
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
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).
Not a whole lot to be wowed at here.
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.
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.
there were sooooo many songs in this album but still only like 40 mins so slay. only one was memorable im afraid
I did not need to listen to this before I died
Meh; lo fi slop mostly.
Alright was more than alright and the rest were fine
Messy, and not in a great way
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 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.”
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
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.
# 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
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.
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.
Didn't hate it. Didn't love it either. I'm almost certain it wasn't the album of the year for 1995.
Not really full songs
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.
Not offensive, but not for me. No standouts.
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.
It’s ok :)
Run of the mill indie.
Moments.
Beatles tribute act.
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.
Nope.
They could easily splice 3-4 of these tracks together and have one or two decent songs.
We have Pavement at home. Landfill shite.
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.
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.
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
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.
pretty cool, although I was distracted while listening and to be honest wasn't really feeling this record - felt disjointed
Would’ve been nice if they finished some of the songs they started.
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.
es fome siento que ya llevo la mitad y ni fuma canción me hizo volver a la app y revisar el nombre
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)
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.
Stoner/garage rock. Would have given it 3/5 except for the track with snoring in the background.
Boring </3
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.
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.
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
Never heard of them, and the music was a bit “nothing” to me. Wouldn’t listen again.
sounds weird and unfinished
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.
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.
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 short length of the tracks was very jarring
Don’t get it. Why are some of these albums on a list
Sounds unfinished
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
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!
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
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.
Not great
This was not fun
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.
Jag brukar gilla "dålig" produktion. Men detta gick steget längre så det lät som det bara var något fel på skiten. Dessutom väldigt generiskt
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.
This was not for me. DNF.
Visos dainos susilieja į vieną. Pakankamai trumpos, skamba lyg nepabaigtos.
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
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
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.
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
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.
There are some decent songs on it, but there are a lot that just kind of grate on your ears.
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
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.
Has its moments, but I’ll never revisit it.
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
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.
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?
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
??? na ja dafür ist 1001 ja da klassiker? neu Endecken, aber ich tu mir schwer...ja das cover ist toll. c
2.5
Didn't really like
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.
Boring American Rock
90's grunge/punk/rock? long album - 28 songs guitar is too loud over vocals :( ended up feeling anxious at the end?
Quirky without the redeeming qualities like: talent, or a sense of direction.
Is this just a collection of demos? Almost none of these songs sound finished and are just small bits. Too much all over the place.
#163/1001. This was the best demo tape of b-sides from an indie band which sounds exactly like X and has been obviously inspired by Y. I couldn't get any grip on the album so I started it all over again. Didn't help. But perhaps that is just the fun of it. Or perhaps this a clarevoyant depiction of our fragmented time and a metaphor or our chaotic world. Nah. It is a demo tape.
Lots of short little songs, not bad, some nice variety. I'm guessing it's some type of experimental group. Probably would have been pretty cool to hear this back in the mid 90's when I was young would be more open to it. Not bad but not something I will exactly be looking forward to hearing again.
I've heard of this band a good few times, but never listened to them. I can see why this was included on the list, because it shows how successful a band can be with a lo-fi approach. But I find the sheer number of song snippets on here a bit overwhelming. So many of them sound like demos, and there's no real flow to the album. I would have liked to hear like 12-15 of these songs at a proper length. The best ones, like Game of Pricks and Blimps Go 90, feel like they're only getting started and then they end. A lot of the songs are just obnoxious experimentation with effects and static as well, like Chicken Blows. Why is that one over 2 mins long, and the best songs on the album are barely 90 seconds? Come to think of it, I would have cut everything after "Blimps Go 90", apart from "Alright".
Zupełnie nieszczególny. Momentami nie miałem pewności czy wszyscy członkowie zespołu grają ten sam utwór.
Mess of an album - bad production and no cohesion. Couple alright bits but not enjoyable for me
Tässähän riitti biisejä yllin kyllin. Kolmasosakin olisi riittänyt aivan hyvin. Aika paljon tuli Beatles-vibaa pienellä säröllä ja paskalla laululla. Ei löydy älyttömästi rispektiä Beatleseihin, niin tähän vielä vähemmän. Parempi kuitenkin kuin äskönen ni nakataan pari pojoa.
Oon varmaan tätä edeltävää äänet johdattelee -levyä kuunnellut, mut tää ol entuudestaan vieras. Muistaakseni se levy ei ollut ihan näin rajua tavaraa. Jotain juttua tästä albyymistä ol, että tuotantokulut ol kympin verran, jos ei laske mukaan kaljaan mennyttä rahaa. Sillainhan kun halutaan käyttää ilmasun tehokeinona kämäsyyttä ja biisit saattaa loppua siinä kohtaa kun ne vasta pitäs alkaa, niin kuulija jää helposti miettimään, että miksi. On tässä seassa hyviäkin biisejä tai ainakiin niiden aihioita. Enkä nyt lähe liiaksi tuomitsemaan sitä, että hommaa ei ole hiottu. Ohan toi myös melkosta erikoishuumoria lyödä kuorsaukset taustalle ja siihen sitten nauhotella päälle musisointia. Jollain tasolla siis viehättävää, mutta varmaan kasetille nauhotettu "minun kuided pai voisiis best ohvi" kestäs paremmin kuuntelua. Kai siin kuitenkin se perusidea katois, kun selkeestihän tätä säveltäneellä on ajatus hyvistä melodioista ja poppiksesta, mutta haluaa tehdä tajunnanvirtaa sen sijaan, että nälväis viimeisteltyä taideteosta. Kai nää omatkin ajatukset levyistä jotka pitäs kuunnella ennen viikatemiehen vierailua on enemmän tän levyn henkistä taidetta kun mitään musiikkijournalismia. Että sillai. Yritä tälle nyt sitten pisteitä antaa. No yritän. Annetaan sit paremmat pisteet, jos tulee se toinen levy. Voi kyl olla, että sekin ol ihan samaa menoo. Joopajoo sano rengit päissään.
Vähän taas erikoinen levy tälle listalle, miksi kenenkään pitäisi tämä kuunnella? Liekö levyn biisinikkari listan laatijan kavereita? Mutta siis joo. Perus autotallikamaa mitä mahtuu tusinaan 15 bändiä. Ei mitään tarttumapintaa, varsinkin kun soundi oli ehkä vähän liian sliipattu ollakseen autotallibändi. Varmaan sillain just "oman kylän bändinä" olis kiva käydä näiden keikoilla siellä oman kylän pikkubaarissa, mutta siihen se sitten jää. Ei nyt missään nimessä yhden tähden arvoista paskaa, mutta ei kyllä myöskään missään nimessä kolmen tähden kamaa. Vähän säikähdin ensin kun scrollasin biisilistaa alaspäin, että tässähän menee koko päivä, mutta biisit olivatkin sitten aika lyhyitä. Siitä toki plussaa tässä haasteessa.
No standouts, every song is too short
mixed bag. wish there were half stars like Letterboxd i would probably give it a 2.5 stars
A 60s psychadelic sounding album with hints of grunge and hard rock. 28 songs in less than 50 minutes is quite a lot of scrobbles! A very weird concept that I have never heard of before. It was a whatever listening experience. Some good tracks over others but they were all short songs.
Meh.
I like the vibe but i JUST hate men singing!! The guitar is too prominent imho Also what is up with the songs being a minute long It's connected the way i believe an album should be you can't really hear when the song is changing It isnt that nice It lowkey hurt my soul
Another one of those 90s bands that I never really figured out. It’s not terrible but it just doesn’t do much for me. 2.something, but not enough for 3 stars.
I remember not being all that enamored with GBV in the 90's when they got "big". This album is an interesting mix of songs and I tend to be fine with the lo-fi sensibility but I don't think I will be coming back to this albums....
Not my jam
It wasn't bad, it was just ideas of songs.
Al principio me pareció entretenida la idea de escuchar un álbum que más que de canciones, se compone de momentos y descartes que surgen de forma aleatoria en un estudio de grabación. Desconozco si esa es la pretensión del grupo, en cualquier caso, a mi me gustan las películas de 3 horas y me parece que hacer cortos es súper complicado, porque tienes que ser muy preciso con lo que quieres decir para resultar memorable y yo de de estas 28 canciones no recuerdo absolutamente nada. En algunas encuentran ideas interesantes pero se niegan a perseguirlas, me dio mogollón de rabia. Las demás, siendo algunas snippets de 20 segundos, me recuerdan a un sketch de SNL donde hacen una parodia de los Sex Pistols y suena más o menos como esto. Las únicas que recuerdo: My valuable hunting knife, Alright (efectivamente, porque es la última)
El lofi noventero tenía todas las de gustarme, pero este formato deja mucho que desear. Tal vez las ideas registradas según surgen, sin filtro ni estructura, sea parte del encanto, pero a mí me cuesta verle la gracia. 28 canciones en cuarenta y pico minutos es una experiencia bastante agotadora. Muchas de ellas terminan justo cuando empiezan a ponerse interesantes. Hay cosas bastante rescatables, pero al estar inacabadas no ofrecen demasiado. Interesante concepto, mediocre ejecución. Favs: Game of Pricks, Motor Away
Hadde lydbildet på hele albumet vært som på låten Blimp90 ville de nok ha fått en stjerne til. Muligens to til også. For det finnes bra melodier bak her, men de velger å drukne dem i en blanding av dårlig lyd og et ræva ide om at det låter tøffere hvis gitaren har høy skrangle lyd over alt.
I quite like this sort of thing but when Death Cab did it 500 times better this just doesn’t cut it
It sounds like a demo tape. The recording is too muddy and incomprehensible to really speak to the quality of musicianship.
Great example of how the counter culture movement has extremes of either great social commentary music or just lyrics for the sake of shock value. This album was unfortunately the latter.
Kinda mid
Ya tiene que ser bueno para que yo me escuche 28 canciones. Esta gente de cree los Beatles o algo... ¿Seleccionar canciones y terminarlas no era una opción? Parece una cassette de maquetas de amigos. Supongo que alguna gente se considera tan genial que cree que debe sacar un cajón de maquetas grabadas de cualquier manera y eso le importará a la humanidad. No es que haya ninguna canción especialmente molesta, pero sin duda no están al nivel de ser publicadas.
This album started out alright- solidly in 3 star territory- but as it went on...and on...and on...I got so sick of it. I was happy to see a departure from the extremely long noise tracks that make up 90% of my experience on this generator thus far, but alas this also ended up being not much more than noise to my ears. I cannot give it 1 star as I still enjoyed a couple tracks, and overall the vibe is good. But as an album experience, it's not so hot. Best consumed in small doses, for sure. Side note- can I expect any albums with any sort of structure and (*gasp*) predictability? If not, this is a waste of time. I did not sign up for this album generator to listen to dozens of hours of pretentious noise. Some of it is good, but this is hardly an accurate representation of the most influential music of all time. Predictability and structure does not equal a lesser form of art, and some of the reviews seem to imply that this is indeed the case.
2.5
2.0
Hitting a bit of a rough streak on the site lately. I’m not very fond of this guys voice, I feel like this album is stylistically disjointed and all over the place, and I really dislike most albums that consist of short songs bordering on 1 minute long each, with very few exceptions. Not entirely sure that Lofi is for me, but this definitely wasn’t. It’s a low 2 bordering on a 1 for me. I think my favorite song was the closer, “Alright”. I just find most of the songs either too short and never really get started, excruciatingly boring and repetitive, or worst of all, all of the above. Sorry guys, I gave it the day. Tried to find something redeeming or an aspect I could end up appreciating, just couldn’t do it.
Weird way to start a day. 28 songs and 41 minutes. Definitely some strange choices made. Snoring in a song? Strumming your lips like Bugs Bunny? Anyway, at least each song was short and before you could get tired of it a new song was on. My biggest complaint is that this really didn't feel like an album. there was no construct or flow. Just a bunch of weird songs.
Wtf did I just listen to? A compilation of high school recordings? Some songs are actually not too bad with decent melodies and other songs are just atrocities to my ears. What the hell is with the choice to include snoring noises in Ex-Supermodel? Why does he sound like he’s under water in Chicken Blows. Not to mention the random volume in the backing vocals. How did these recordings pass QA? The few selection of good tunes saves this album from being a 1/5
А чего такие песни короткие? Этот альбом как будто писался для сдвгшников, которые больше минуты на одном предмете не могут внимание сконцентрировать. А у меня наоборот, я только начинаю въезжать в атмосферу песни и она вдруг заканчивается. Ну что за дела? Звучит это месиво как запись школьников в гараже о бытии своей нелёгкой жизни, и это одна из положительных сторон данного альбома. Саунд грязный, сырой, расслабленный и меланхоличный. Даже пара песен, например, последняя - Alright, Motor Away, Always Crush Me - довольно клёвые. Все бы было хорошо, не будь они такими короткими...
made my head hurt
Not mine
Could hear Beatles influence, some Crowded House, bit of punk, but most of the time sounded like an out of tune garage band
# 568 : Alien Lanes Alien Lanes - A lo-fi sprint through chaos. If Alien Lanes is a masterpiece, then I’m a cassette deck. This thing sounds like ADHD in real time—lo-fi, lo-effort, and lo-interest. It’s all over the place, jumping from one half-formed idea to the next like a kid with a sugar high and a four-track recorder. Apparently it cost $10 to make, and honestly, that feels generous. There’s potential buried in here somewhere, but it’s buried deep. The songs are short, scattered, and often feel like demos of demos. Less is not always more—sometimes less is just... less. The best part? It’s over quickly. It’s listenable enough, and occasionally interesting, but not something I’ll ever come back to. This isn’t an album—it’s a sketchbook of musical doodles. Verdict: A lo-fi sprint through chaos. Not an album—just a catalogue of song fragments. Best Track (if you must): As We Go Up, We Go Down – the one moment where the chaos briefly aligns into something resembling a song. Listened: 15/09/2025
Wasn't really my thing. Not terrible per say, but didn't strike a chord with me and some of it was kinda annoying experiments.
No for me, dawg
Not a GBV fan.
Quantity over quality: every GBV album sounds like a set of unfinished demos to me.
Ok
Album's only 41 minutes long but contains 28 songs. I don't know, maybe if a song is 18 seconds long it's not a song? Songs come quick and fast which is good if you don't like one but they also don't necessarily flow together well. It's just not a cohesive book of work. The music is fine and probably paved the way for future artists (this came out in 1995) but there isn't much I'm looking to relisten to. 4.5/10 (2.25/5)
Don't get it.
Its like they kept changing the station midway through songs, except all the stations were the same mid-90s college station. 2/5
Fine but it didn't wow me
Never listened to them before and won’t listen to them again.
This ain’t it for me. It feels unfinished, muddy, and messy. Not in a fun way either. It’s a snooze fest with crappy mixing that gets all mixed up. I think this has the beginning of something good, which is probably what draws people to it. There are a few little gems that are fun and as soon as they come they are gone, I’d much rather listen to a 30 min cut down fleshed out and finished version of this album.
I just didn't see anything novel or particularly good about it. Sorry. I wonder whether, if this had been my, say, third album generated, rather than my four hundred and forty-somethingth, I would have found more in it. But we've had such a *lot* of noisy blokes with guitars that my enthusiasm for analysing why particular chord choices, production choices, lyrics, etc might be more meritorious than others has waned. It was lo-fi. It was quite noisy. It didn't really add anything to the music scene in 1995, as far as I can be bothered to think about it. Sorry again.
I did not like this one. I hate the dudes voice. Every so often there would be something I liked, but then the song was a minute long and it ended. Not for me
I have long maintained that the 90s is the best era of music. Even the best have their occasional slip-ups. This album started out sounding like a Beatles tribute band, and morphed into the illegitimate love child of a Beatles tribute band and a Lemonheads tribute band. Then it went downhill from there. A lowlight was the song I couldn’t really make out the lyrics because there was some very loud snoring. I had heard of Guided by Voices but for some reason I thought they were an American Christian band. After listening to 28 songs of this mess, I don’t think an American Christian band could have been worse.
I didnt like it rven though it seems up my alley. didnt like it ar all