Reviews (page 5 of 8)
I don't know. I do like short songs but some of these are over before they really establish anything. It's not bad but not thrilling. It doesn't help that I once knew a douchebag who was obsessed with GBV and thought they were the greatest thing ever. I guess a 3, but I kind of want to make it lower.
It was average to be honest.
Listened to this while doing my taxes. I definitely enjoyed this more than taxes...but taxes are the worst part. Good hazy mid 90s indie rock. Nothing groundbreaking, but still decent enough.
1000 ideen in schnappschüssen, aberr alles viel zu schnell vorbei
I wondered what the hell was going on when I heard the first couple of songs on the album. All in all thia was pretty decent
Good, too long though.
That was a nice listen. Kind of middle of the road for content, probably not going to throw that on the phone for mobile listening but I'll keep it in the at home collection
Was a nice change of pace. Sometimes it is nice to just have a bunch of quick songs. Will I listen to again: 50%
Interesting.
Liked it the more I listened.
Ooufff. Difficult one. It wasn't really bad, but it was too wild; too incoherent to make it work out for me.
Ja best goed, zaten paar goeie dingen tussen maar alle nummers zijn heeeeel kort en dat vind ik wat minder
a very alternative rock sound. very eclectic. at times you hear sounds reminiscent of the beatles, the black keys, the gin blossoms, cream… all with a deliberate lo-fi production quality. an adventurous listen in that you never knew what the next song would sound like. that’s ok because if you didn’t like the song you wouldn’t have to wait too long for the next one, in that most of the songs were under two minutes. highlights: “a salty salute”, “watch me jumpstart”, “closer you are”, “striped white jets”
Heard a lot about this band over the years but never listened until now. It’s poppy garage rock and perfectly fine even if nothing stands out as great.
Enjoyed this. But also constantly couldn’t not recall a single song
I really enjoyed the lofi nature of this album. it had the spirit of a band that was starting to find its way to something great. I love the roughness of it, its jittery but sweet, ragged yet lovely. I will be exploring more of their catalog for sure
Liked the first maybe 25% of the album. Catchy, quick songs. But I got very bored by half way through the album. I like the indie sound, but don’t know when I would enjoy listening to this. In the end, didn’t hate it, didn’t love it.
Ok, 3 stars
This was almost a good album. There are some good ideas here but, with comically short track lengths, nothing has enough time to breathe. Despite that, it flows very well and is quite good as a holistic album experience. Until Ex-Supermodel. That song made me cringe viscerally the whole time, and the album never really picked back up after there.
You just sat down at a local brewery and have 45 minutes and want to try everything so you start ordering flights. Some are great, some are good, some are average, some suck. That's this album in a nutshell. Goes by fast and in the end you enjoyed it but can't recall which songs you really like because you just drank 28 4 oz beers.
Meh.. just very full throughout most of its runtime. I appreciate the lo-if sound, and the vocals are nice. The mixing needs getting used to as well, as it’s all over the place. There’s some things I appreciate here, but most of this album is dull with most of the time basic lyrics. That F slur was uncalled for to..
Some good songs, but kind of fades into the background.
I love some songs from this album, but I also never think to listen to this album as a whole because there are 1000 songs on it.
This feels VERY 90S. This is both a good thing and a bad thing.
"Guided by Pricks" is the standout. So many tracks that Guided by Voices outstays its welcome. 3.2 stars rounded down.
I didn’t love it though I really thought I would… kinda meh
I like the lo fi sound but thats about it, lyrics and vocals leave a lot to be desired
Did not attract my attention
Почему-то мне хотелось чтобы этот альбом мне понравился и он мне не понравился. Но у меня есть ощущение, что это из-за того что у меня отстойное натстроение сегодня. Поставлю три. В принципе неплохой роцк, в гараж к пацанам покатило бы, сатсуму крутить.
Pretty avant garde style of song writing mixed with a punkesqe album of short, under a minute songs. I prefer more conceived song writing but there were a few decent songs. The recording quality was interesting in a highly produced lofi sound scape. Interesting overall, not something I'll listen to again.
I really wanted to like this album. As someone relatively new to the GBV world, I haven’t heard many of their full albums. I’ve seen them live a couple times and thought the last show I went to was great. I even went to a GBV cover show last summer and had a blast. Their bigger hits are really fun live. But this album didn’t do it for me, sadly. A lot of songs felt unfinished and the sound quality wasn’t good. Giving them a 3 because it’s GBV, but I had higher expectations for this.
3.5
Very 90's. All over the place with short songs. Not terrible, but had a very garage band feel.
This is a collection of brief, indie-pop songs from a prolific group. The songs demonstrate the songwriting skills of the group's founder, Robert Pollard. Some songs are catchy, but all brief enough to leave you wanting more and to avoid becoming memorable. This was clearly influential - you can hear glimpses of many other indie-pop artists in this work.
I know short songs (~1:30) is kind of a tradition in punk/indie music but for me it’s difficult to listen to an entire album of 30ish song a that sometimes come off as undeveloped. Some of the songs were good, I just wish they went somewhere. Plus the use of f@&&0t was grating, and in 1995, it was starting to be in the realm of unacceptable.
Seemed pretty short.
Most of this is charmingly low-fi sounding, a few of the songs I wish were longer and more fleshed out, and others were just sort of grating.
How is this album both so short & so long? The good songs are good. The rest sound like unfinished demos.
These guys like short songs, as do I. Not the endless Genesis/Yes songs with an endless solo of 10+ minutes. Songs are pleasant to here, but after 15 minutes I thought: didn't I hear this one 5 minutes ago? Bit like a less exciting version of Dinosaur Jr or Pixies.
Really solid album except for the two songs are obvious pulls from Tommy and The Wall.
Nice sounds. I prefer their newer stuff tbh
Bagel Radioooooo 😁
Top 28 Hits
My first exposure to guided by voices. Obviously the first thing you notice is that it does not sound very good, which is presumably part of the vibe. On first listen it reminds me of They Might Be Giants, but less fun. There are several great tunes on here but many that just aren't, or in some cases aren't yet but could be. The sonic embodiment of ADD. Plus a star for the cover art of the Great Sand Dunes which made me a little homesick.
My first thought was oh dear, more generic indie landfill, but on listening a bit closer there's definitely more to it than that. Trouble is it sounds like a demo tape of half finished ideas, needs a bit of editing and expanding on the better tracks.
This was an odd collection of not quite songs but I'm glad I got to see this project once.
Interesting alt rock sound. Enjoyed it
I had this on in the background and the songs were so short it was really hard for me to keep up with coherent thoughts about an individual track before it had already ended, though I did catch the usage of the f slur on the song Hit, which was unfortunate. I liked the overall vibe of it but I'm at a loss for evaluating how worthwhile it was - this sounds like a demo tape to me. Jangly hissy and tinny, which can be good, but the fact that the songs were also so short made it seem unfinished. Almost reminded me of Kurt Vile if he had gone a different way?
Didn’t like the way the album started off at all but the later tracks really caught my attention. A lot of variety here and good energy
Reminds me of McCartney in that it is more of a sketchbook than a proper album. These song fragments sound pretty unfinished to me and though this could be the bands style, the shortness of the songs make my case I think. I’d give a 3.5 if possible but I can’t.
Ok album, lofi, noisy, short, scattered sounds and ideas. Like a less listenable Flaming Lips
Short tracks that do what they need to do. But I do wonder what to make of this album. It all feels a bit like a soup and not a collection of stand out songs.
not bad
very weird
B- A Salty Salute* 3 Evil Speakers* 3 Watch Me Jumpstart 2 They're Not Witches* 3 As We Go Up, We Go Down 3 (I Wanna Be a) Dumbcharger* 3 Game of Pricks 3 The Ugly Vision 3 A Good Flying Bird* 3 Cigarette Tricks* 3 Pimple Zoo* 3 Big Chief Chinese Restaurant* 3 Closer You Are 3 Auditorium* 3 Motor Away 3 Hit* 3 My Valuable Hunting Knife 3 Gold Hick* 3 King and Caroline 3 Striped White Jets 3 Ex-Supermodel* 3 Blimps Go 90 3 Strawdogs* 3 Chicken Blows 4 Little Whirl 3 My Son Cool 3 Always Crush Me 3 Alright 3 This was pretty good, but forgettable. I already can't remember the name of the album or who the artist is.
It's good and fun. But everything can't be a 4.
I kinda wish I was introduced to the finer points of lo-fi indie earlier in life, because now it's nearly always jarring to hear music that's deliberately released in an unfinished-sounding state, and recorded by a russet potato. However, I'm pleased to have been misled by this band; Guided by Voices sounds like a culty new-age group, so I'll take the lo-fi indie. Kinda on that note, Alien Lanes sounded fantastic on my portable Bluetooth speaker, whereas other albums I've tried with it sounded terrible (the polyrhythmic Remain in Light and densely-sampled It Takes a Nation of Millions, to name two) Even though the nature of the short tracks means that few had a chance to really make an impression on me before the next one comes blazing in, the overall experience was quite pleasant. It's as though I fell asleep during a Kinks song, and that song kept distorting and permutating throughout the dream, picking up influences from Weezer & Dinosaur Jr along the way. It's neat 👍 and I'll probably enjoy it more with time, once I've processed it a little 3.5 HL: "Watch Me Jumpstart", "Game of Pricks", "Closer You Are", "Motor Away", "Always Crush Me" October 20, 2023
28 tracks in 41 minutes. Excellent. Each one an amuse bouche of early ninties indie, from some that sound like Oasis to some sounding more like Dinosaur Jr. or Nirvana. I like this a lot, though not sure how good it actually is.
Pretty good album, a nice find
I enjoyed this quite a bit. Nothing particularly great about it, I dug the vibe and felt the that short songs really suited it. It's an interesting one because each song in isolation sounds super average and generic. But for me atleast, each song in the context of the album kinda worked. Fav Track: Chicken Blows
Lots of little moments that I’d love, but not many tracks that I thought were amazing, and overall felt just fine rather than a mind blowing record. I know this band has a lot of records, so if this is their best I’m not sure they’ll be my absolutely favourite. Two and a half. Fave track: My Son Cool
3/5 not quite there yet. Had potential
Great low-fi indie album
Starten ligna det på rolig Beatles, ikke dårlig, men litt sånn ripoff
A lot of short songs like you expect to hear on a 1970s punk rock album. The music was pretty good. Nothing really stands out though. 3.5
Short sharp tracks that make the album feel fractured. I found it hard to follow any narrative or theme. Maybe this is one for a second play through to get more out of it.
If this album cover had no words on it and you just showed it to me and asked "You wanna listen to this?" I'd say "Nah, I'm not big on reggae. Thanks, though." Anyway, I love the lofi ethic of GBV, but I have to say that none of this is connecting with me. It's best listened to as if you found a tape on the sidewalk and took it home and this is what was on it. And you'd think "Dang, there's something here." And there is something here, I'm just not sure there's enough of it.
Kinda feels like REM meets The Beatles. I know of this band without knowing them, but what I do know is that they’re supposed to be very enjoyable live. That makes sense after listening to this. So many songs in so little time. I reckon I enjoyed about one quarter of them, which makes me want to just put together a playlist of the choicest nuggets. You’d probably be left with a pretty solid little 20 minute record, which they could bang out live in its entirety twice in one set!
I kinda liked it but then I also kind of didn’t? But then I did again. And then I got bored. And then I liked it again. And then I got distracted and it ended.
I mean I live an album under 45 minutes. And it has nearly 30 songs? Incredible commitment to the bit.
I'm not cool enough to have been into GBV before they broke through, but my brother was and exposed me to a lot of earlier stuff. I have to say it was better. This album seems well along into them basically doing their own shtick. I just don't see it as the "must hear" album of their giant catalog.
Interesting mix. Garage rock, indie rock, jangle pop, and more. Lo-fi recording.
Jai trouvé ca pas mal meilleur que je pensais pour être franc. J'ai aimé le son, genre punk, rock, indie . Ca sonnnait bien. 1995. Ca sonne bien et ca détonne un peu du grunge. 3.5
Sounds like the Beatles trying to play Nirvana. Not bad!
At times a bit boring and uneventful
Thrashy lo-fi indie apparently recorded for next to nothing following a huge advance, it speeds along like a rollercoaster barely taking a pause on tempo or even gaps between songs. A couple of great tracks mixed into what genuinely felt like one single song - yet somehow there are over 20? Probably need to listen to this more intently to pick out the best of it, but it was charming anyway.
I guess you have to play to your strengths. This band's strength seems to be starting writing songs - but not fleshing them out. There really isn't all that much else to say about the band's music. Not bad, very listenable. But really nothing special. An album with 28 songs is likely to have some stinkers like Little Whirl, but there weren't really any positive breakout songs.
Gave me some Elvis Costello vibes at times. It was fine.
Canciones con ritmo, de duración corta, sin nada especial que aportar. Simplemente pasables
I don't even really know what to think of this. Some of it was good, some of it was just noise. It's a cool album though. I'll put it at a three. My favourite songs were Game of Pricks and Always Crush Me.
Endearing LP with a cult status for many fans of indie rock. There's a bunch of cuts that are phenomenal. *Alien Lanes* also has its share of fillers, though, and its atmospheric qualities don't fully make up for them. Guided By Voices have never been interested in self-editing, that's for sure. Which is why I put this album on hold when it comes to give it the "essential" tag. Hope there will be room left for it in my own selection. Not sure there will be though. 3/5 for the purposes of this list, which translates to a 8/10 grade for more general purposes (5+3). Number of albums left to review: less than 500 Number of essential album: half so far. Number of albums I *might* select as such later on: a quarter (including this one) Number of album I won't select: another quarter.
I liked some of this but that song with the snoring was almost enough for me to turn it off.
This was kinda fun! I can get on board with this garage pop punk indie sound. It wasn't super memorable for me as I'm struggling to remember it more specifically, but it was alright.
I think I would have preferred half the songs with twice the material
Really unmemorable.
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!
Again, didn’t need to hear that. Think I need a breather from this game.
Woah, a mixed bag. Beatles-obsessed (but coming across more ELO), indebted to Sonic Youth, the Pixies, and The Replacements, and occasionally hitting upon a gold nugget of a song. Overall, this has moments of gorgeousness but it's too derivative. I have no idea what Guided By Voices sound like stripped of all the influences.
So many ideas and yet they all sound pretty similar. Maybe I'm too much of a f*ggot to understand it though x
This wasn’t really an album, it was a concept of an album. Some of these songs could have been good if they were actually developed.
Some of these tunes were tolerable and maybe even borderline good. Other were not so fortunate. Mixed emotions here as this seemed like a mish-mosh of musical styles thrown together to form a collection. I’d never go back to this album if I’m being honest.
This felt like a bunch of unreleased demos? Some cool sounds but nothing of too much substance?
Miks tää audio on hemo muffed? Oon myös varma että rumpali puolissa biiseissä off-beat
More less.
Never heard of the guided voices before. Short songs. Some were good.
28 tracks within 41 minutes, does that make a coherent album? Mwoah, for me this doesn't really work. I like songs where you can grow into, get related to. These some sort of soundbites doesn't do that.
I had high hopes for this. I like the lo-fi aesthetic, and shorter simpler tracks. But this is a demo tape at best. Ideas of something that could become a track. Is someone snoring in the mix of one of the tracks? If so, I get it.
Samples before you have access to the full album
Well today i learned that a scrapbook of indie music is enough for this list. No need to write a full song, just two chords, 30 seconds of lyrics and a garage. Reviews suggest this was “experimental” but just because The Beatles were experimental doesn’t mean you are when you copy them
Feels more like a demo album. Some of it is decent enough. But nothing really sticks.
You guys going to finish that thought? No, moving on to the next one already? Okay well surely this will be a complete-- oh, no, the next song has started. Not really even giving us time to get a beat going but-- oh, next song again, okay, yeah, cool. 30 songs in a 44 minute album, okay, let's go I guess. I love short songs from time to time, but this is pushing it. Also think this was recorded on a dollar store microphone in a bathroom.
I like the sound, but the rapid fire songs one minute after another don’t give time for any one song to register.
I'm having a hard enough time to figure out why this album is recorded, let alone whites on the list.
Back to back mid punk albums... It's not super fun.
I listened to this album twice. The first time I thought my car speakers were broken or something. It sounds like you recorded the original album on cassette and then recorded that version on another cassette and then recorded that on another cassette and then.... this is like the eighth cassette. Cassette-ception. It seems like amazing little hiccups of indie rock, but that production, man.
The idea of an album having very short songs isn’t new, and it’s proved to showcase an artist’s ability to write something catchy and cohesive under such restraint. This album is very fragmented, and while I can appreciate the efforts, the content is not great.
Tää oli aika geneeristä vaihtoehto-rokkia. Soitto oli hyvää, mutta biisit liian samankaltaisia, tusinatavaraa.
Ну пролетело, дальше то че?
I tend to hate it when people immediately jump to the "why do I need to hear this before I die?" argument about any album they don’t like, or don’t understand – but there is a strong case to be made for this one. It’s rough and ready with a real lo-fi production. The whole album has a really awkward flow to it, where some songs stop before they even get going, and other songs cut in in a disjointed manner. So many songs have such little form to them that it's hard to connect with it. My key beef with this though, and the reason why I’m now jumping on the "why do I need to hear this?" bandwagon, is because so much of it is just utterly unremarkable. A lot of it just isn’t good enough or fleshed out enough (in my opinion) to put on a proper album. By the mid-way point this was rapidly losing any good will I had, and it became a bit of a slog by the end.
It's interesting in that all the songs are so short, which is also my biggest issue. None of the songs develop, they just pop in and out then onto the next one. And there's so many of them, some of which didn't really need to be here. I wanted to like this, especially since I enjoy GBV's mid 2010's albums.
679/1001 2026.08.13 🌕🌕🌗🌑🌑
This is only on here because it's different and Game of Pricks was pretty popular. Different isn't always good though, 28 songs in 41 minutes is hard to pull off and they don't. It ends up feeling like unfinished demos, many either samey or just poor.
28 different half cocked demos of songs spread over 40 mins? No thanks. Bu the time anything started to get good, the track ended and it was on to the next. And by no means did every track even get good. There's probably a good 10 track album here if they fleshed out the best tracks instead of making whatever the hell this was. 2.25* rounded down to 2*
Dan said he really liked this one so will pay attention to this one Update: I liked it, it was an easy listen. The community rating of 2.76 sounds about right
Meh
Sounds exactly like the album cover 😂
Meh
Overall: 4/10 So much potential wasted by not actually finishing writing any of the songs. This is a demo album disguised as a studio album and it's frustrating because there's so much to love about these short snippets. I just can't fully enjoy an album that's not complete. Fav Song: My Valuable Hunting Knife
Cool noisy indie rock aesthetics but short tracks feel like unfinished ideas
What a strange album. Every time I was getting into a song it would fade out and be over. The greatest album of half songs there ever was.
Just a bunch of words and sounds that don’t stay long enough to make any sort of positive impression.
Twenty-eight songs in 42 minutes somehow felt both rushed and too long. It is like the Beatles, pre-10,000-hour mastery, were hired by a no-budget ad agency to crank out commercial jingles and failed. Ex-Supermodel, with the background burping, completely lost me.
Not bad but not my kind of thing
Another second pass. My opinion hasn't changed much (I dislike that intentionally fuzzy sound and too many songs, even the ones I like (A Salty Salute, for example), feel too short to the point of seeming incomplete.) Didn't hate it, but I don't think it deserves a "fine" ranking.
Oli pikkasen outoa ja mitäänsanomaton. ⭐️⭐️
I really appreciate something different on this list, and this one qualifies. There are some brilliant moments buried by intentionally poor recording and a need to end songs prematurely. Man, if this was recorded normally and edited down to about 12 fully realized 3 minute tracks, this might be one of those albums that everyone you know owns. Since it isn’t that, I think it’ll just be a music nerd’s go-to album for impressing non-musical types.
2.5
I couldn't get into this.
Fun and weird B-sides. Not sure, if I was a fairly successful band, if I would have released this. Not sure why this list includes so many similar pastiche albums. I feel like folks think the concept is more novel and rare than it actually is and so they give it more heft and credence when considering it? This was fine and certainly was at least blessedly short on a track by track basis. I can hang with this for the 42 minute runtime. There was pretty fair variation as well.
My high school boyfriend tried to get me into this band 15 years ago (and I have the stats from Last.fm to prove it.) The best songs are easy to see because they have roughly millions of plays more than the rest of the album. It would be nice if GbV knew how to edit, but I guess it's that prolificness that appeals to their cult fanbase. The songs remind me of Fingertips on Apollo 18 by TMBG (short songs made to be shuffled) and I'm sure that will annoy some of the people reading this. Anyway, thank you for reminding me to delete 18 albums of their music from my hard drive which is probably 3 years of their output.
No
In a vacuum, I love the concept of how this album is structured. Songs shaved down to only their hooks in pure, unpolished form. The sad reality of this album is that these guys failed to deliver anything of impact in their passing snippets. “Game Of Pricks” isn’t bad, but if I have to look to the bands most popular song as their sole memorable track, then this album has a problem. “Motor Away” was good too, which brings me to the sad realization that if these guys put their efforts into 10 fully realized songs they could’ve had something really sweet. It’s a really frustrating notion knowing what this group is capable of. I can tell these guys are good vibes, but this record has no place in here. Breezy but benign. Softest 2/5
Listened
Boring I wanted it to end
some good stuff and I like his voice and vibe but 28 tracks are not all gold. Also the demo-ish sound kinda wore on me
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
There’s a theoretical version of this album that I really fuck with. This isn’t it.
I admire the ambition. There were some cool moments and elements. I didn't feel like I could relax and enjoy a pot of it though. It's so low fi. To the extent that it's quite grating in many parts
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.