Alien Lanes

Not my style. Sounded a little monotonous in tone which did not make me want to lean into what the lyrics were saying but I’m gonna listen to a couple songs over and maybe change my opinion. Since it’s my first album I’ve listened to I think in the future it would be helpful to learn more About the band and the era of music. Next time.

I couldn’t get into it. Sounds like demo tapes to me. I’m learning lowfi production isn’t really my thing.

It started off somewhat boring, imo, and then got worse in the middle. Some good riffs here and there, but at what cost?

Not sure how I feel about this one. I like the vibe of the first song but then nothing else really caught my ear. Interesting that the songs are so short.

Como una radio, bastante interesante con algún tema guapo. Sonido de guitarras guapos y estribillos pegadizos. Me mola la idea de que sean como sketches de radio. Pero hay canciones que son infumables…. 2/5

Ruim, tenta ser muita coisa e erra em tudo

Neutral Milk Hotel pour les pauvres?

++: Evil Speakers, They're Not Witches, (I Wanna Be a) Dumbcharger, The Ugly Vision, Auditorium, My Valuable Hunting Knife, Ex-Supermodel, Chicken Blows, Always Crush Me +: A Salty Salute, Watch Me Jumpstart, Big Chief Chinese Restaurant, Striped White Jets, Strawdogs, Little Whirl, Alright +-: As We Go Up, We Go Down, Game of Pricks, Cigarette Tricks, Closer You Are, Motor Away, Hit, Gold Hick, King and Caroline, Blimps Go 90, My Son Cool -: Pimple Zoo --: A Good Flying Bird 4,9/10

I didn't like this.

Really weird album, loads of extremely short songs that largely sound unfinished

Favorite Track: As We Go Up, We Go Down

Some of the 28 tracks on this are quite decent. As an aspiring musician, it is good to hear different ways of making albums and this is a good example of something I wouldn't have thought of doing and never want to do, but not totally terrible!

Ok, so gonna be honest, this didn’t do much for me

I get half-baked is kind of the charm and it is a fun change of pace to have sub-minute songs but it just skipped from one idea I didn't like to the next. Rating: 2.3

I don't really understand why they only finished about 3 of these songs. They all start and then they all finish. I feel like there was potential to this. Quite Shins-y at times. But, just, like... finish a song!!

2 plus Why are the tracks so short?

Not for me

i don’t understand the point of this but it’s like listening to a very long collection of demo tapes. most are just really short and unfinished and today this has bugged me xD it gets a 2/5. would’ve been a 1 but the music itself isn’t bad. it’s just annoying to listen to this entire thing.

I struggled rating this one, the music was great but I wasn't a fan of the short army of songs. I think if they had around 9 Bohemian Rhapsody style songs It would have been much more enjoyable

This is my first GBV album and while I like tracks from it they are way too short to make a lasting impact. Why wouldn't you pick like the 10 best ideas and develop them further, or if you want to make medleys just do that, but not put tracks on a row without purpose. This project needed a producer that helps the songwriter make the best possible version of every track

Not into this at all, sounds unfinished, like if you and your buddies were just recording in a garage or something.

Reminiscent of the Clash and other early 80s rock. Slightly weird. Very short songs and plenty of them. Musically quite accomplished but not something I'd go back to.

2.3 Don’t rate his voice find the music so so

half-songs :/

Not really

A collection of short lo-fi indie tunes. Occasionally flirts with a Flaming Lips sound. 'As We Go Up, We Go Down' is my favourite, by some distance. That's it. Not enough here to make the list.

I've got to join in with everyone saying this feels more like a demo tape than an album. Not bad, has a good spirit, but didn't move me. Sounds like it could turn into something more but the style they're going for doesn't want to, and that's fine. Always Crush Me had my interest.

There are moments that sound like a Beatles cover band recorded in the garage. Some Lou Barlow vibes I'm not sure what I'm supposed to get from this. There was a glut of bands that sounded like this.

If The Beatles were born 25 years later with 1/5 the talent they would be Guided By Voices. There is nothing intrinsically bad about this album, there’s nothing that holds me to want to give this another go. The songs are under developed, the production style of having it sound like it was recorded on $20 microphones during an electric storm in an echoey warehouse was an interesting choice. The instrumentation was solid, the vocals and melody were catchy but nothing revolutionary. I listen to this list with an open mind and keen ear to try and understand why it’s considered 1 of 1001 albums you need to hear. I feel that if it is something that is genre changing, genre creating, trend setting, the peak of decade, peak of a career, a magnum opus, boundary pushing or just a plain masterpiece, that’s what should be on this list - not some haphazardly crafted pop alt-rock creation by a person clearly suffering from ADHD. 41 minutes is a sweat spot for album length, but dividing that into 28 songs is a weird mind fuck that makes the album seem a lot longer than it is. 3.5/10 #66/1001

A half-baked record from a fully baked band.

Not for me

Maso

28 musical thoughts crammed into 41 minutes with a song sprinkled here or there.

There's some good stuff here but also a lot of bad stuff that doesn't feel particularly artful or interesting in why it's noisy and short and weird especially in contrast to the more fleshed out songs. It just feels confused. There's a version of this album I'd give a 3 but I never want to listen to it all the way through ever again so it gets a 2.

hmmm... think I'm done with lo-fi

I can’t figure out why I’ve never heard of this band. It seems like the music I would have listened to back then. 28 songs, none of which were very memorable. Wasn’t bad, but I probably wouldn’t listen to it again.

It was interesting but none of the tracks were long enough to carry out a full idea and they didn't really carry a consistent sound between them which I found very jarring. Several tracks were also bad but in a way that felt deliberate. This is very challenging to do well and didn't land for me. If it was narrowed down to the best tracks and refined more I think it would be a great album but as it stands I didn't love it.

The snoring song was a -1. Rest of the album was weird and not my thing. Felt very disjointed, sometimes boring, sometimes annoying.

It's strange that a band I have never even heard of before can make me feel so much nostalgia for a past time in my life. This album is dripping with early 90's garage band feels. The guitar reverb alone invokes a dozen bands I grew up with from 91 to 95. That being said the album really threw me with it's short song lengths. At a certain point I realized a song I was listening to was actually three songs that just kinda ran onto each other. The album is 41 minutes long with 28 tracks. That means each track averages 1:28 seconds. Each song feels like a preview of a full song I might have liked when I was 14 but just when I am getting into it the preview ends and the next preview starts. I feel unfulfilled , lol.

Annoying

demo quality songs, some are good

average

Not sure can be fucked this album. A lot of the songs are very catchy with strong Beatles vibes but then just as your getting into the song its over and another one starts. This coupled with the shonky production and I'm thinking life's too short for an album of charming but half arsed songs. Less is defn more.

The Good: We are being guided! The Bad: The voices… they are guiding us… in our heads… The Ugly: The aliens that don’t know how to stay in their lanes. I listened to the album, because it was on the list… I forgot to rate the album the day that I listened to it… and now I can’t even recall what the album sounded like… Thus the album is forgetable… 2* because I can’t even recall if I hated it

A series of poorly recorded demos and snippets by a guy that can't sing. A true must hear.

Favorite track: My valuable hunting knife. Overall score: 3.3/10

Good ideas, but they all feel underdeveloped.

Eclatax

музыкально норм но плюс слова и периодический нойз и пожалуй нет

Decent songs. Many songs on the album weren’t songs at all but 20-30 second blurbs of random signing and music.

pretty alright, lot of stuff going on. not sure if the distortion makes it better or worse. alien lands is a very accurate name. no standouts imo. most songs are too short to put in a playlist or something.

Utter nonsense. Like others said, a demo tape with ideas that could have been expended on.

A lot of weird, unfinished ideas. The songs seemed kinda short, and merged altogether. I get the idea that it is lo-fi, but the lack of polish could be really heard in this. It was... just not good. NEXT.

No, not for me.

A lot of very short "vignette" songs. I'm sure these were more interesting back in the 90s but none particularly stand out at all to me as I've heard many songs in this style. A couple of decent songs but too sparse, too many more that didn't make an impression.

Whilst there were some decent songs on here, we didn't really enjoy Alien Lanes and won't be listening again

Badly played demo tape. If they'd taken the time to finish the songs, record them properly, arrange them in a sensible order and get in some session musicians to play the difficult bits they struggle with... Of course, that means I don't get the whole "lo-fi" thing. Fair enough. I think my take is, "if they can't be bothered... why should I?" 2/5 simply because if someone else decided to record some of these songs properly they might be quite good.

2.5

Sounds like something you’re supposed to like. The weird cover sums it up well - roughly done, incoherent and artsy in an amateur way.

First album I came into completely blind and unfortunately I did not enjoy it. Feels like half baked Pavement without the melodic and lyrical inventiveness and the constant 40 second snippets quickly became irritating.

Felt like I was playing GTA looking for a good radio station that never came

I think I'm being pranked 😅

No excuse for an album in 1995 sounding this terrible except if it's on purpose, and I generally don't enjoy being trolled when listening to music. The two that come to mind are the (I think) snoring sounds on Ex-Supermodel and whatever the vocal effect on Chicken Blows was. It was all very irritating and tried my patience. There were a couple of decent tracks in there sounding Kinks influenced, but hell if I can remember which of the 28 tracks they were. I won't listen again to find out.

I like the idea of this way more than actually listening to this.

They may be one of the godfathers of slacker rock, but there's a little too little rock and too much terrible singing for me to get behind. More Striped White Jets, Blimps Go 90, and Alright and this gets a stronger consideration from me. 2.5/5 down to 2

1,5

Tracks mostly sound really enjoyable, just ruined by the production for me.

2 Stars (5/15)

it's ok, nothing more.

Some interesting ideas for songs. Looking forward to hearing when it's finished

Very short songs. I had to restart a few times because I would walk away and then didn’t really realize when it ended. I couldn’t make out what was special or unique about it or why it was on the list but I didn’t hate it.

Not bad, but not as engaging as the other 3s

28 really lame song ideas. That’s all.

Sounds like a weird demo tape. 17 second songs, many of them sounding unfinished.

Looks like a drug induced mess, sounds like a drug induced mess

I like their sound, but each song is far too short. It drove me mad

First? 3/5 Again? 1,5/5

iTunes preview merchants (also where the hell was the drummer for 80% of this record?)

I sort of felt like this was a demo tape. Lots of good ideas, none totally fleshed out. The short songs are kind of neat, but I wish there were fewer songs that were stronger. It’s like they needed a good editor!

Nah, just not for me. I like lowfi, non perfect vocals etc, but this was just extremely mediocre to me. Don't get the hype, maybe I give it another listen see if I missed something

This was a tough listen. Sound quality almost AM radio-ish. That may be a compliment. Was hard to get into the music because it seemed like a garage band. Other than that💯loved it

Sounds like cruising around in a 1970’s boat of a car with a bent antenna picking up AM stations from Canada. There were no power windows, just like there was no production on this album. Both are fine, just not great.

I don't like the "garage" sound very much. This leans into it a lot. It's a sound that faded after the 90's, and I prefer what I would call its successor, "bedroom pop." I guess it says something about the last 30 years that home recordings went from a very lo-fi, aggressive sound to something a lot closer to a true studio. I guess it also says something about the the last 30 years that even garages are too fancy for a lot of artists now.

L'ho ascoltato senza accorgemene, non penso sia un bene.

Another discovery from the 1001 Gods. How on earth have I never heard of this lot when they have released zillions of albums? Had a problem keeping up when listening. By the time I had waded through the album track list when hearing something I liked they had moved onto the next song. With amount of album’s and individual tracks on them you’d argue that Alien Lanes are dealing in quantity rather than quality. If this album is anything to go by (because I’ve no intention of listening to their complete discography at my stage in life) I’d probably agree with the view of quantity over quality and that more is less. Having said that there are one or two brief moments of joy. Just wish these tracks were longer. 2/5 2/2/25

I was familiar with one of the songs on this album, so I figured I'd probably like the rest. Nope. Not really.

How is this an album? It feels like fucking around to get some ideas that might some day get on an album. Worse, I had zero interest in most of these ideas. The ones that were a little interesting were too few and too insubstantial.

This album is a shotgun, not a rifle. That is to say, a barrage of many short songs fired with the hope that at least one of them hits the target. They all missed.

Enda fördelen är att det är 28 relativt dåliga låtar samtidigt som speltiden enbart är 41 minuter. Det är ju bättre än 2 relativt dåliga låtar med samma speltid. Jag skulle ljuga om jag sa att det här var bra. Det här är bra.

Yeah, this sounds like this cost about $10 to record. Another crappy 90s record I never needed to hear

I don't get it. I checked some of the reviews by other people, and it seems that some people love this, but I couldn't find anything to love in it I'm afraid.

Thankful for the brevity.

If I could go back to the 90s, and park my car somewhere that I could pick up multiple college radio stations on the AM dial (some of them with a good deal of static), switched to a new one every minute or so whether the current song was done or not, and captured it all with a handheld cassette recorder, I imagine it would sound a lot like this.

This album is kind of a mess. There are some songs that make it decent but they end so quickly that you don’t even get to enjoy it before the sound completely switches. I don’t think the vocalists work well together. Some of the instrumentation is good but again it’s fleeting as the songs are so short that it changes to something completely different in a flash. It just doesn’t flow all that well. I had one song of theirs from a different album saved on my phone before listening to this and it’s so far different from this album I was very surprised to see it was the same group. I’m sure it’s considered a foundational indie record and that’s why it’s on the list but i personally didn’t love it. I think my favorite song was “little whirl” but honestly I might have gotten it mixed up with another song bc of the nature of this album. They use some interesting vocal distortion stuff on the last few songs, I can see how this album is innovative and could potentially be inspiring to other artists at the time.

Nothing special. It's okay. Sometimes annoying. Sometimes good.

just noise bruh 😭

To me this felt a bit like listening to unmelodic noise :/ I didn't like it, but I can see the appeal for some.

2.5?

Just another below average rock album, never a good sign when Spotify starts playing new songs at the end of the album and all the new songs sound better.

Ugh. Not good. I was bored.

So this album is on the list because it is a case study in why you should pay more than $10 to make an album, right? There were a few redeeming songs on this one so it isn't as bad as it could have been. But when you have 41 minutes for 28 songs the good ones are over too fast. Bad decisions everywhere with this one.

Glad I missed this in 95

Försökte först lyssna på högtalarna hemma. Och stängde av med känsla, nej, orkar inte. Lyssnat i hörlurar sen dess och tycker nog det är bättre. Men det är en konstigt skiva. En miljard korta låtar. Ingen som mognar. Det är som små teasers till låtar. Vette fan. Helt ok bitvis. Men inget jag kommer vilja lyssna mer på. Och vette fan om det är så bra att det ena förtjänar en trea. Känner att jag hellre vill fälla än fria, mycket på min första känsla.

Well this is another peculiar one. I expected to like it, but apart from a couple of brighter tracks the only thing that it has going for it is the brevity of each track. That said there was a couple of times (out of nearly 30) when I thought "Oh is that over already". But on the whole nothing special here

This seemed like a missed opportunity. There were several potentially great songs on this, but it appeared to be a load of half baked ideas lobbed onto a record. I loved the Lo-fi production values, which reminded me of early Fall, but the ittty bitty songs should have condensed. Maybe this style was what they were aiming for, and fair play. It probably way ahead of it's time, and would have been perfect for Tik Tok's 15 second video clips or something shite like that.

Good grief. Who mixed this?

2.5–was fine, no standouts probably wouldn’t relisten

I just can’t see why this is on the list. Nothing stands out about it

No strong feelings about it, but towards the end noticed the repetitiveness of lyrics and skipped a few songs.

This is the least remarkable music. It’s just 90s chill garage band. Most of the songs are the same with different words, but the words don’t keep my attention so it’s just the same fine for too many tracks. When I looked at the lyrics to try and give them the benefit of the doubt, it just seems like they’re trying to be deep and it isn’t connecting.

you know, not everyone HAS to make music (valuable hunting knife tho…)

Pre-listening thoughts: lofi… oh… well Post/during listening thoughts: now why is this 28 songs?????! WHY? Give me one good reason why an album lasting 41 minutes needs 28 entire separate songs. Absolutely insane. Song length is giving that one episode of Zach Stone is Gonna Be Famous where Zach makes songs that are so short they are just ringtones. Every song is over before it begins. It’s so uninteresting. My attention span is deteriorating. Help me 3/10 DID I NEED TO HEAR THIS BEFORE I DIE: oh definitely not Fav tracks: As We Go Up We Go Down Least fav tracks: The Ugly Vision, Gold Hick, Ex Supermodel (is someone snoring in this one?????), Chicken Blows

Esse disco mostra a enorme importância de se ouvir um álbum pela sua ordem de produção e de faixas. Canções curtíssimas que se ligam uma a outra.

Got sick of this very fast, didn't dislike it enough to give it a 1, but it was close.

It was like The Decemberists and Uncle Tupelo had an annoying angsty teenage punk son. A band I always heard about but never listened to. I'm missing the hype they garnered.

Seems like a bunch of unfinished demos.

Only got into GBV lightly. I’d think I’d like em better if their songs were twice as long and half as many per album.

Don't like the crappy production and don't like many of the songs either. Two stars from me.

Listening to this album was like teaching someone how to drive a manual transmission: frustrating because you know how it's supposed to be, but also surprising because you didn't know your car was capable of performing in such weird ways when an amateur is in charge

Mér fannst þessi plata skemmtilega tekin upp. Pínulítið hrá og fersk. Því miður voru tónsmíðarnar líka hráar og þá voru mær leiðinlegar frekar en ferskar. Sem betur fer voru lögin stutt og þetta kláraðist frekar fljótt

This album just didn’t move me in anyway. I wasn’t a huge fan of their sound, and each time I started to get into a song it was already over. I heard some lyricism that seemed interesting and thought provoking, so that’s worth mentioning.

Mostly very short tracks, like song ideas that never grew.

Never heard it before; I will probably never hear it again.

Mehh

28 songs in 41 minutes; that's something. Most of this strikes me as noise rock, which I don't love in most cases. I know it's intentional, but it largely sounded messy to me. I'm sure the "raw" sound works better for others, but I was glad to be done with this one. 1.9

I didn’t find much here to grab onto, but I respect the number of songs and the ability to keep it brief. Though, I do wonder if the brevity of the songs is what allowed it to wash over me. The distorted garage sound hides any brilliance that may lurk.

Mixed bag. Probably would’ve enjoyed it when young.

He intentado encontrar el genio en GBV, pero hasta el momento se me ha escapado.

Pretty rough. 2.

"Guitars are out of tune, drums are off beat, it just sounds like a bunch of dudes who have no idea how to put together a cohesive song. I probably miss something in this album, but it felt like listening to a draft composition from a bunch of teenagers, in constant pain... "taking the words of another reviewer cause this is how I feel. There is one good song on this album and It's called "Game of Pricks" and it's almost as if this one was fleshed out fully... oh wait

altern. Rock, 1995 -> 2

This sounded like a demo. Rough production, snippets of songs, I don't get it

Thoughts before listening: I want to like Guided By Voices, but I just can't ever get into them. I think it's mainly the crappy production. Robert Pollard writes some good songs, but it's hard to tell with the tinny sound. We'll see if this is the listen that changes that perception for me. Review: So they call this lo-fi I guess. There are definitely some great ideas on this album, but it all just sounds like sketches of unfinished demos. Maybe thats the appeal, but its just hard for me to get into this album. Best songs/ideas here: "As We Go Up, We Go Down", "Game of Pricks", and "Motor Away". In general, my opinion remains the same that there are some good songs here, but its a bit like finding a needle in a haystack. 2-stars

I couldn't care less for this kind of rock album. Nothing bad, but it sounds just so generic that I don't feel engaged to it in any way.

Pretty meh. Nothing stuck out. Would probably never listen to again.

I really wanted to like this but I don’t think it’s good enough to be on the list. I appreciate the shorter songs with more of them, but it’s quantity over quality here. 2 star because it is very unique, but I don’t think it’s polished enough.

I can appreciate why this album is on the list. I'm sure there are plenty of people out there whose favorite Brit pop rock band didn't make the list and are upset that this one did. This is different, unique, and a little strange. I'm not saying I necessarily like it, but I like that it is here.

2.5

Generic, did nothing for me

Kinda just vibed, wasnt bad. had some hard duds, others I was tempted to actually write down. Ok background music

Not really me

An album full of demos, sounded ok but not needed before I die.

They sound like coitus interruptus! A premature ejaculation. Although they have a lot of potential good songs and some good ideas, they are completely wasted, because you can't just fill an album with a bunch of one and a half minute songs and think that's cool. Other than that, they actually sound cool at times, and for that reason alone I won't give them the slightest rating. 2 stars.

Very fitting as I leave Nashville

I don't really care for this.

The quick songs and rawness to the recordings are an interesting choice but it’s hard not to think I’m listening to the demos of a project in the works. I’m torn between liking the stylistic choice and feeling like this could’ve been more with a little polish (2.5/5)

didn't feel this got going, tons of songs but really short and each one sems to try going in a different direction to the last - wanted it to end

I went to go pee and missed 13 songs from this album. 4/10

Guided by Voices can be described as this: Pavement for people with extreme ADHD. At first I was impressed, and then the song ended after lengthy 1:30 seconds. Spool up the next, and end it 0:59 secs later. This album comes off more like a group of kids who had a great riff but didn’t know how to write a bridge so they just ended the song. I appreciated the 1950s quality of Prick, and several songs got the head bobbing briefly. Favorite track was the epic of the album (2:30) Watch Me Jumpstart. Probably won’t be returning to this street…or should I say driveway?!

Fine

kinda whack but not really

Better to have not been guided to listened to these voices.

Probably a bit too experimental/low-fi, even for me.

Strange lyrics and inconsistent

This album is so unbelievably oversaturated with songs (28) that it becomes difficult to appreciate any specific one. There isn't much of a flow between tracks. If you're trying to sift through the album in an effort to differentiate between the okay songs and the good songs, just look at the number of plays on Spotify. I am trying to enjoy "Game of Pricks" which is objectively the largest hit on the album, but there is this distorted effect that is either originating from the quality of the microphone or added in post. At first I liked it, but the more I listen to this grainy, distortion effect, the more annoying it becomes and less desirable it is. To double down on the point of oversaturation, 8 songs are a duration of 1 minute or less, with the shortest song, "Cigarette Tricks", being only 18 seconds. There isn't much composition to the album. It seems more like an attempt at a psychedelic experience, perhaps "Guided By Voices" was indeed guided by voices in the making of this album. The free spirited vibes carries through more than a structured piece of music. I am sure they had a lot of fun making this album, if you can call it that.

I expected this to be hippy music. Instead I got a somewhat noisy rock album that occasionally make me think that this is what the Beatles would sound like in the mid 90’s. Drugs were probably big at this point in their careers. This also could have been a Syd Barrett album. This album was just a little on the positive side of not good.

Meh. It’s ok but I’m not sure I’d listen to it again.

So much of this album sounds unfocused and unfinished. The tracks are like snippets of various ideas of songs across many different genres without anything to really tie them together. Not only do virtually all the songs feel incomplete, but the snippets that are there are incredibly unpolished. And there are 28 of these tracks, by the way, resulting in all of this just sounding like a demo tape of a demo tape. I'm really not sure what supposedly makes this album so special or worthy of inclusion. If anything, it's a bit of a bummer imagining what the album might have been with a bit more time spent on it.

just not the kind of music i like

I can't see myself ever listening to this again.

Never heard of this band I can see why. These aren’t really catchy songs. 28 songs over 41 minutes. 2 star and they’re pushing 1 Striped white jets is a real song wow they can do it. An entire album with no groove whatsoever.

Guided By Voices answers the question of whether one can get to know a band through samples.

Short versions of sounds I've heard before. Maybe another day I’d give this a 3 but after 2 excellent albums this is sub par.

The short runtime for each track doesn't do it for me. Feels like I don't have time to get to enjoy the songs before they end and move on to the next. A tedious listen.

Just didn't like the style. Doesn't sound like it was recorded in a studio. Instruments have a tinny feel. Voices coming through distorted, annoyingly so.

This was mostly fun and interesting but I find it surprising that by 1995 it was still interesting enough to get on this list.

Another long 40 minute proggy listen brought to me by 1001albumsgenerator.com

Too long, too boring, too meh.

Meh

Short songs, still too long

How is this special? Not impressed at all. The mix is annoying af. This is just more whiteboy bullshit. 2/5

I'm surprised to read how critically acclaimed this album was. I didn't care for it at all. I agree with Robert Christgau of The Village Voice that it's a dud.

What bothered me most about this album was its lo-fi production. I'm normally pretty open to lo-fi if it's done correctly, but something about Guided by Voices's un-remastered, homemade sound is very off-putting. Another reviewer wrote it best: "I cannot stand the mix. I get what they were going for with the dirty, fuzzy sound but I fucking HATE it. The guitar tones on this album are fantastic but I feel like that gets so muddy and hidden in the mix. This would easily be a 3 or 4 star album for me if it were a little "cleaner" sounding." Another issue is melody. These vocalists cannot carry a tune. Add that to the factor that some of these melodies can hardly be called tunes in the first place - owing to lack of musicality and a generally improvisatory feel - and the list of tracks that could be considered catchy becomes short very quickly. But with 28 tracks, at least a few had to stand out, and indeed I did notice some highlights. The main factor that boosted these to being "good" songs was higher energy and a solid melody. These songs, in particular, I wish could've lasted longer (nearly all 28 tracks are under 2 minutes), but I still appreciate them as they are. Also, for what it's worth, the lyrics are pretty fun. So is the album cover. Key tracks: A Salty Salute, Game of Pricks, A Good Flying Bird, Blimps Go 90, Alright

I had hopes for this one. I had got behind on the list and looked to the 10 albums ahead and thought that this would be the one to choose next. Sadly mistaken. Another questionable inclusion on the list.

Not for me today. Maybe another day.

Yesterday I had a terrible headache and listened to the first track and thought I’d save it for another day - it’s not any better today. This album desperately needed a producer who could help the band turn these demos into actual songs - it’s not even that I mind some of the tracks being short, they just don’t go anywhere and are so half arsed - full arses only please. Twangy and out of tune without a built up release or intention, some weird noises. There could be something here, but its not enough and I don’t have the patience for more listen throughs to find it - if anyone needs me I’ll be laying in a dark corner with a wet flannel on my eyes with my ears gently bleeding.

Sounds like an album of samples, where every song starts, tries to build up something and anticlimactically ends without any release

I wasn't a fan of lots of short tracks, it made listening quite frantic. It was quite beneficial for the weaker tracks, as they ended that bit quicker. For the odd decent track I wasn't at all disappointed it was over after 90 seconds. I guess what I'm saying is, it was tolerable but not great.

Didn't mind the short tracks, but there were a LOT of them. If you like this, you'll LOVE Half Japanese.

I like the way the songs flow into one another. It's a little rambling at 28 tracks. Melodies are rare, attitude is everything. The budget clearly wasn't spent on production values. At times it sounded liked a random bloke shouting shit down a mic. This probably sounds best on a C90, rather than a streaming service.

Maybe it gets better with multiple listens, but I dont think I WANT to listen to it again. 2/5

Some songs are good, but a lot of them sound like unfinished ideas or they gave up halfway through the song.

So I never heard anything of this artist or album at all in my life. Like discovering a planet or walking into the largest library and randomly grab a book and go. Here’s the problem with this scenario though, this piece of art is coming at you randomly. It’s on a list, a list that states is MUST before 💀. I’m a new father and I love listening to music and everything about music and feel like I enjoy a wide variety. I will never mention nor play anything from this album ever. This album isn’t the worst on this list and even had some fun moments and help me realize this list is a grind and has many far from ever being MUST. 1.5 rounding up.

A few decent tracks here but significantly diluted by a bunch of unfinished dross.

I find this album very unsatisfying. It's a tease. Great little pop hooks, but only the hooks. They're over before I get a chance to enjoy what's going on.

Music is nice, sounds like The Pillows, but the actual songs are drawn-out, yet very short and actually "boring" to listen

Sounds like they shouldn't have left the garage. One of the band members even fell asleep while recording

Got a weird one today. Average song length is like 1:30ish, which makes it feel like just like a bunch of unfinished ideas. It's like indie rock, or lo-fi. Props to them though for being mentioned in an episode of The IT Crowd. There's also a scene in the show where Game of Pricks is playing to drown out the sound of people banging. Apparently the creator and director, Graham Linehan was a huge GBV fan. Favourite songs: Game of Pricks, Blimps Go 90 Least favourite song: The Ugly Vision, Cigarette Tricks, Pimple Zoo, Auditorium, Striped White Jets, Ex-Supermodel, Chicken Blows, My Son Cool, Always Crush Me 2/5

I am learning that I really dislike that I think intentionally fuzzy sound. Also, while I am generally a big fan of brevity and often criticize albums and songs for being too long, this swings too far in the other direction. Every song feels like an incomplete thought and even ones I am enjoying (A Salty Salute, Game of Pricks) seem to end abruptly. Not a great experience overall.

Gets annoying after a bit.

-this sounds like a bunch of dudes who wanted to talk the alt music talk but can’t walk the walk -like maybe they just started dressing/were alt music scenesters that no one ever bothered asking if they could make music -I couldn’t find any synergy between the lyrics, melodies, riff ect throughout the entire album

This album feels a lot like a beer flight or scrolling your phone for a while. Nothing lasts long enough to make an impression on you. It’s like 30 tracks of a minute each. The music isn’t all bad but they’re more like incomplete thoughts than songs. It’s more of a scratch pad of chords and high thoughts than a continuous musical idea. I get the feeling this album could have been at least mid if they took the time to flesh some of these out.

Gave it one listen, some ok lyrics, but the songs are short even by punk standards. No real enjoyment of the music. 2/5

The poor singing and lack of intonation made me not enjoy listening to this album. Not my style of music.

Kinda all over the place. Not keen on it.

I get that the bad recording quality and unfinished songs are the artistic concept and they are probably done well in that regard. It just doesn't do much for me.

Meh

Meh

Ein paar Songs sind ok, die meisten aber schlecht.

Didn’t enjoy. Too lo-fi chaotic.

Not the worst thing I’ve heard. 2.5 stars

A poor imitation of The Who

Lots of starts to songs…

I dunno. Never heard a single song by these guys.

The sound quality on this drove me nuts, and I was confused about why this album sounded like it was played on a small town radio station but I guess it was intentional. This is a long one too, I think if this is your genre its a shining example but to me it was just a lot of garbled noise and half-songs that didnt need to be recorded (Always Crush Me is awful for this and made shut it off for awhile).

This album did nothing for me. But it wasn’t unpleasant so 2 stars

I'd like to say I like this, but I don't. I don't especially dislike it - sure, there were a couple of skip tracks, but having listened through this album I can honestly say that my life is no better for having heard it, and that gives me no inspiration whatsoever to listen to it again.

There is so much from the album cover that made me think this was some kind of instrumental type album. Didn’t realize it’d be a hundred thirty second songs that sound like those dollar 45 records. Would love an explanation on why this one is on here.

This album is in desperate need of a remaster. Lo-fi is one thing, but this sounds like garbage with how compressed the audio is. Virtually unlistenable. The music itself was ok - the vignette style keeps things interesting at least, though no songs stuck out. 2/5.

This wasn’t as awful as I thought it was going to be, so I guess that’s something. I didn’t enjoy this in any way, though.

7 songs under a minute, w/ the longest song under 3m. If you distorted the hell out of it & increased the BPM by about 200 this could be a grindcore album. "Lo-fi" definitely covers it, as it sounds like it was recorded with a walkman. 90s/American was also a shock, since many of the songs sound like rough, discarded Beatles demos dug out from Ringo's trash. Overall, I don't really get it -- and I've listened to The Frogs, but maybe it's because they didn't seem to be taking themselves too seriously. Wait, is that SNORING I hear in the background? wtf. At least it was relatively short.

It sounds like the cover of the album looks.

Not something I would choose to listen to. Some songs remind me of the Beatles

niet soort lo-fi rammelgejenkel uit de USA gaf en geeft me altijd flink veel donkerbruin in mijn aura.

Ja sorry. Dit is gewoon muzikale diarree. Matig opgenomen. Kill your darlings! Als er al wat leuks tussen zit, valt het simpelweg niet op temidden van de matigheid van alles.

This felt like an America's Got Talent audition record, nothing was finished or a full song, just parts of songs that left me wanting more. I think I could like this band, but I wouldn't listen to this again because it just left me wanting more.

meh 2 stars

Britisk 90’er, korte intense indierock-numre, lidt punk

This album dragged on for me. I loved the soft shoegaze guitars, but found the vocals quite grating. Not something I would listen to on my own. But there are a couple tracks here and there that rock, like ‘alright’ and ‘game of pricks’. Many of the tracks’ Melodies reminded me of Beatles tunes.

I don't like the guys voice, and it sounds very 90s

This has all the elements of the kind of stuff I like, but for some reason doesn't quite do it for me; I'm not sure why. I wish they'd taken 12 of the most promising of these 28 songs and developed them further. As it stands it's a pretty mixed bag.

Bastante sin mas.

Sounds strange. I gave it a try but it was really not my cup of tea.

Why do the drums sound so shitty? Half the songs don't even have drums. All of the songs are half songs. I do not understand this band's genius.

On paper, I should be rapturously praising this album. I’m all about mid 90’s alt rock, and I consider that time frame to be the ultimate musical renaissance of my young life after coming off of a diet solely comprised of slick 80’s radio pop, which I truthfully still adore. Unfortunately this album falls into Pavement (the band) land for me: Style over substance. Attitude over ambition. (Or maybe I still just can’t forgive Stephen Malkmus, lead singer of Pavement, for dissing my beloved Smashing Pumpkins in the mid 90’s… Whatever. To each their own. They are VERY different bands!) There are a few cool moments which I’d likely come back to: “Closer You Are” sounds like a lost Beatles song, (which makes sense since this entire album feels like it’s aiming to be the lazier slacker version of ‘Abbey Road’s side two). “The Ugly Vision” is a creepy acoustic number even though it is undercooked, and “Move Away”, “Hit” and “My Valuable Hunting Knife” are fun and accessible with a dash of oddness. All in all, this album could grow on me, but I can’t see myself coming back to the whole project with so many other great albums, musicians and genres to taste and fall in love with.

alright, nothing really stuck out to me. would definitely listen again to give it a second chance.

I've never been able to get into these guys.

Sounds more like fragment of ideas rather than fully formed songs.

Not bad but not my fav, probably deserves more listens and time

3/10

When they play loose, the ceiling is higher. Right?

Kinda sounds like Sloan with a dash of Weezer.

Lo-fi.....or lo-quality? Meh

Not great

I don’t know. I’m not really resonating with this. Never had an interest back in the day. There are better bands with this sound. How is this special? Not impressed at all. The mix is annoying af. This is just more whiteboy bullshit.

2.3

Very irritating album that started pretty well, with original sound and interesting concept. Unfortunately, after few songs this concept became unbearable and I was ready to give up. It's pretty amazing that I have listened to 14 songs and ended up just halfway through the album (one of many, as well). Not a music I can enjoy for longer than couple minutes, I'm afraid.

This album was strange. The songs are very short and most of them fade out, which leaves me with the impression that I'm listening to a preview of the album, instead of the album itself. Some songs had a catch hook but some songs were just obnoxious (e.g. the snoring in the background of Ex-Supermodel.

More twangy monotony, why have I got to listen to so much tedious strumming before I die?

28 songs and 41 minutes. Some of them are good and more than some of them are not. Call me crazy, but I would have made the good songs longer and left the bad ones off of the album. I was excited to listen to this, but it was a bit of a disappointment.

Rather than a proper album, this seems more like a collection of alt-rock demos. Someone must have thought "That's enough, release it already". And they did. Tedious 2/5.

It definitely sounds like a bunch of unfinished demos. All sounds very raw. Many tracks fade out after a minute. I liked the bits I heard, but in terms of an album, it's very odd.

One that I’ll forget I ever listened to.

Meh. It's dated and unimaginative.

Usually this is about long songs, but for this album, the songs don’t justify their length. You have no time to become invested in these songs before they end. The songs also, simply, aren’t that great. They’re good and fun, enough to listen to a couple without getting annoyed or bored, but not after almost thirty of them. Swing and a miss. 2/5

At least it was over quick. Average garage. Not The Ramones and nowhere near The Strokes. Lo-fi and lo-quality.

28 songs, some with a little bit of potential, all of them repetitive even with their short runtime yet at the same time unfinished. Bad recording quality doesn't help either.

Interesting, varied, worth a listen....BUT.... The distorted lo-fi production makes it hard to listen to....

Loads of utter nonsense in here that was slapped together as a lame excuse for an album. Unfortunately against my best judgement, I did in fact enjoy some of these songs (My Valuable Hunting Knife, Closer You Are, Game of Pricks, Blimps Go 90, Little Whirl) so I have to give this a two. But you won’t catch me coming back to this album in its entirety anytime ever.

40 two minute punk songs easy to listen to with some great ideas not quite the ramones though

Expected to love this but found it a real slog. Game of Pricks is good though

Sounds like all the other GBV I’ve ever heard. Middle aged man noodling in his shed. Fawned over by other middle aged men.

Didn't really get this for the first few songs, found the lo-fi aesthetic charming for a few, then grew frustrated at the vague sketches that populated most of the record. Fave track: My Son Cool

Not for me, songs are way too short.

2.5

28 tracks in 41 minutes. The most lo-fi professionally released record I think I've ever heard. This sounds like the band took it's advance and did the absolute minimum necessary to record a bunch of partially formed early demos and left it at that. Rating: 2/5 Playlist track: A Good Flying Bird Date listened: 30/09/23

Not very good at all. I lasted about 15 or 20 minutes but I couldn’t continue listen anymore. The vocals conflicted with the backing music and didn’t seem in sync at all. This one was all off.

They tried to do something here. It’s mostly unpleasant.

A mish-mash of half-baked or even half-finished demos, does that count as an album? No. And saying it was deliberate makes it even worse. One additional star for some good Beatles-esque melodies and some of the guitar work, but this is hard to enjoy amidst all the chaotic noise.

Don't get why the songs are so short.

I would have never thought this was Lo-Fi if I wasn't told beforehand. I honestly didn't think this was a great album at all. It wasn't till after the album ended that I got into what was playing on my music, only to find out it was someone else. This album wasn't bad or un-listenable, it just wasn't good.

It was alright and I tolerated listening to it. It doesn’t help that I feel lousy, that might be altering my opinion, so yet again, 2*

Not into it 3/10

Bored. When will something happen?

I used to listen to newer Guided by Voices, but this is bad. Sorry.

this did absolutely nothing for me.

The individual "songs" sounded fine but it was so schizophrenic. Felt like giving the aux cord to that annoying guy who changes tracks after 30 seconds, never letting the full song play.

Felt all over the place

Ehhhh…..

Started out thinking I might like this album. It got weaker as it went along.

I’ve never heard of Alien Lanes before. The album art looks interesting enough, leading me to expect maybe something like Rusted Root. Apple Music describes it as alternative, and it was released in 1995 which does bode well for my tastes. Songs I already knew: none Favourites: They’re Not Witches This is a bit of a strange one to review. While it was playing, I felt it was decent (it’s nothing like Rusted Root by the way, it’s straight up alt rock). However, only half an hour after it finished I found that I didn’t remember any of the hooks from this. I write this album the morning after so I’ve slept since listening, and I’m finding the impact made was minimal despite it being decent during a listen.

I don't feel this aged well.

It's not bad, but by the end I was really glad it was over. Just a super harsh, grating sound that doesn't hold on well.

Not very memorable

It was interesting how every song was like a minute long but I feel like something like that works better with a band like cannibal corpse because that kind of heavy music doesn’t really need multiple transitions or layers. With songs like these that aren’t totally incomprehensible and fast paced in style it makes it seem like they had a bunch of good sounding ideas but no way to connect them, the genre collides with the style

While no song overstays it's welcome, nothing sticks out on this album because it all just mushes together. The mix isn't great either. 2/5.

Low quality garbage

Good scope between the songs. Other than that, nothing too special

Uninspired riffs and a bad voice

Perhaps the only thing I've heard from Guided by Voices is the name of the band. Nothing from Alien Lanes sounded familiar. I get the impression from the lists of reviews from other people, that there are people who like some of the same artists that I like, who like Guided by Voices. I didn't enjoy this album. I was trying to give the music a chance at an "okay" rating, but I did find any tracks that truly earned my attention. I'm grumpy today, so 2 stars.

Ok

Forty minutes of Oasis outtakes.

First off the wiki blurb that says this is a lofi band is definitely bullshit based on this album. This is as 90s indie rock as it gets and while it started off decent, by the song that sampled snoring I was completely over it. It’s especially bad when it’s only 41 minutes and it feels like 60. Usually I like albums almost entirely made up of 1:30 songs but this one didn’t really give me anything to latch onto. I feel like that format is better for crazy hyper shit like 100 gecs more than bland rock like this.

They may be an influential band in the alt rock genre, but they are too meandering and formless in their singing for my tastes.

Seemed quite wannabe Beatles, otherwise generic brit rock

Tellement inconsistant. Des passages avec des compositions super intéressantes, mais la chanson ne dure pas plus de 2 minutes. Des fois des chansons qu'on ne sait pas si c'est supposé être un interlude ou un morceau d'expérimentation. Et ce n'est pas grave d'avoir des courts morceaux, mais qu'au moins ils se suivent bien ; ça coupe constamment d'un style à l'autre. Ça veut faire trop de chose à la fois.

Nothing sticks around long enough to be offensive Nothing sticks around long enough to be memorable Feels like there might have been something great in there if they’d actually let any songs develop

The whole album just sounded like a bunch of demos from a week of renting a recording studio. I think the album would have potential if they chose some of their favourite 'tracks' and fleshed them out. I'll be rooting for Alien Lanes 2, so hopefully I can give it a better rating

The actual music here gets a 2. It doesn't feel that well thought out, but is fine and mostly inoffensive (some dodgy lyrics though) However this sounds like it was recorded on a toaster. Did they decide not to master it just to be edgy? 1.5/5

Best Song: As We Go Up We Go Down. Mildly enjoyable hippy whimsy. Worst Song: Ex-Supermodel. Is someone snoring in the background of this song? Overall: What even if this? I don't think it feels right to call these songs. None of the tracks certainly feel like they can stand on their own, but it also isn't as though the tracks ease consistently into one another to produce a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. It is just a disorganized collection of ideas, jumbled together and picked blindly from a hat. It has the feeling of going to a library, grabbing a book and opening it to a random page, reading a paragraph or two, and then tossing it over your shoulder to grab a new book.

What a train wreck of an album. Why there snoring in ex-supermodel. Some of the train wreck moments were fun but jeez…it was too wild. Also, lol the vocals on chicken blows.

This was alright, all very short songs

It’s a bit too Lo-Fi for me. Felt it had too many different ideas going for it.

Was fine, short tracks that were not particularly memorable.

The sound is too grating. I even skipped some of it.

Pretty good alt/indie rock Noisy at times and catchy at others Got kinda annoying by the end

Not bad but just kinda dull and disjointed.

Yikes… nothing from this album screamed “influential” to me in any way. I just don’t like the singing, the lyrics or my music. I’ve definitely heard worse and this album was TOLERABLE, but not good.

Was not a fan of this album. Short songs were great because I'm not sure how many I could listen to.

Eh.