Reviews (page 7 of 8)
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 like the lo fi sound but thats about it, lyrics and vocals leave a lot to be desired
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.
Did not attract my attention
Sounds strange. I gave it a try but it was really not my cup of tea.
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.
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.
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
There is a song with some really obnoxious snoring going on very much in the foreground. It's awful. Poor songwriting. There is a reason I've never heard of this band.
alright, nothing really stuck out to me. would definitely listen again to give it a second chance.
Nicht meine Richtung
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
Very 90's. All over the place with short songs. Not terrible, but had a very garage band feel.
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
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.
Not my style
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.
4.5.
10 Albums You Actually Need to Hear Before You Die Chapter 6 Throw the Switch, It’s Rock and Roll Time: Guided By Voices’ “Alien Lanes” I didn’t get it at first. Guided By Voices had all the trappings of a band that I should have loved. These were guys recording albums on four track in dingy Dayton, Ohio basements. They were lo-fi, prolific and inspired a dedicated fanbase. Their backstory was amazing: Robert Pollard, a grade-school teacher in his 30’s, and his drinking buddies recorded songs and made records in their spare time. For Pollard, it was in hopes of getting out of the teaching job that he was disenfranchised with. His family were on him to give up on the band and focus on his career as a teacher, so he recorded one final record, Propeller, pressed up 500 copies and called it a day. Guided by Voices’ manager, recognizing the greatness of Propeller (and Pollards song writing talent), started sending out copies to indie rock labels, magazines and records stores as a last ditch effort at recognition. The plan worked and Guided By Voices became the toast of early 90’s indie rock. They followed up Propeller with “Vampire on Titus”, one of the most inescapably lo-fi records of the era, and “Bee Thousand”, the album that, to many, would define not only lo-fi, but 90’s indie rock as a whole. “Bee Thousand” was my introduction to Guided By Voices at the turn of the 21st century. When I bought it at Vintage Vinyl in New Jersey, it had already gained its mythical status and as a Matador records enthusiast, I needed to understand what made this band so beloved, so important…I needed understand why their fans were so fervent in their assertions that GBV was the greatest rock band on earth. I popped in Bee Thousand and, by the end of it, had gained no clarity on the situation. Even after two or three more listens, it still didn’t click for me. So, GBV went on the back burner. I had tried and it didn’t work. You can’t like everything, right? A year or two would go by and while reading Mojo or some other British music magazine, I saw a glowing review of Guided By Voices’ latest record “Universal Truths and Cycles”. “Maybe I need to hear something more recent, more polished”, I thought. “Maybe then it will click.” I bought that record and it didn’t, so I gave up on my quest to understand Guided By Voices. A few more years passed and Guided By Voices broke up to much fanfare, with cities across the country declaring “Guided By Voices Day” when the band showed up in their cities for the farewell concerts. “Well, I missed the boat on that, I guess.” In 2010, Matador Records turned 21. To celebrate, they threw a three day concert in Las Vegas, with a reunited Guided by Voices on the bill, and released a multi-disc retrospective of the label’s 21 years. As a Matador enthusiast, I picked up the boxset without a second thought. While making my way through the box set on my trip home from the record store, a song came on that grabbed me. It sounded like a lost Beatles song, except it was incredibly lo-fi and surprisingly short. “Holy shit, who is that? That might be the greatest song I’ve ever heard,” I thought and grabbed the CD case to see who this band was. I read the back of the case and it said, “Game of Pricks - Guided By Voices”. “You gotta be kidding me.” So I decided to revisit Guided By Voices, give it one last push to see if I could make sense of them. I purchased Alien Lanes from the iTunes Store and loaded it up on my iPod. I listened intently, and though not all of it stuck, I felt like I was at least closer. When “Motor Away” played, I could tell I was on the verge of getting it, understanding why GBV fans are so obsessed with the band. After a few listens to Alien Lanes, and its greatness became more apparent, I started digging through my closet of CD’s and pulled out that neglected copy of Bee Thousand…”I need to give this another listen.” I won’t say it clicked right then, it didn’t, but I had moved from the “I don’t get it” camp and into the “I think I like Guided By Voices” camp. So I started listening to other albums, “Under the Bushes, Under the Stars”, “Propeller”, “Mag Earwhig”…even if I didn’t love them all right away, each had a least one song where I thought to myself, “this is the greatest song I’ve ever heard”. Then one morning, around 5 am, when I was barely awake, showering and getting ready for work, I found myself with a song stuck in my head. Half-asleep and dazed, it took me a long while to place the song. After all, how often do you have a song stuck in your head moments after waking up? For me, it might be the only time that’s ever happened. The song was “Echos Myron” from Bee Thousand. Like an Indie Rock Manchurian Candidate, I had been activated. Guided By Voices didn’t just make sense to me, it had hit me like a ton of bricks. I had to consume as much of Robert Pollard’s music as possible and soon my vinyl record collection was (and still is) overflowing with Guided By Voices records, EP’s and 7-inch singles. Similar to watching one of David Lynch’s films, you aren’t just listening to an “album” when you throw on a GBV record. From the record cover to the songs and lyrics, you are stepping into Robert Pollard’s world. It’s a world full of Valuable Hunting Knives, Hardcore UFO’s, Bright Paper Werewolves, Main Street Wizards, Wild Strawberry Girls and Christian Animation Torch Carriers, all kept in check by the Teenage FBI. Guided By Voices are the greatest American rock band of our time and it’s ok if you don’t realize it right away…now that you’ve heard this record, the switch has been thrown and it’s almost rock and roll time for you.
It's cool. It's weird. It's well-played. It feels like they put in about 50% effort. It feels like they didn't need to put in any more than that. It feels like it doesn't have any kind of message. It feels like it doesn't need one at all. What a strange, wonderful album.
2.3
Seemed pretty short.
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.
Me rappelle Oasis. Accrocheur, ample, satisfaisant. Navigue habilement entre profondeur et légèreté.
Really like GBV, but they do suffer from being overly experimental at times.
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.
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.
More twangy monotony, why have I got to listen to so much tedious strumming before I die?
Really liked this album. Short indie rock songs.
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.
Just how I like it, 28 tracks on a single album and still only 41 minutes long. No song is long enough to get bored of. Most of the songs are like a tease, and I want more, but I know more wouldn't be better.
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 😁
As We Go Up, Motor Away and Blimps Go 80 are the only not horrendous songs.
Top 28 Hits
I get why some people would hate this but I quite like it. Weird and unique, very deserving to be in this list.
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.
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.
It's a bit different, 28 songs in 45 minutes (give or take), recorded on a 4 track machine. Personally I would have preferred less songs, e.g. cut all the tracks under 1.30, which would be a more palatable 16 tracks. But there are some interesting ideas of mostly catchy garage rock. At times it reminds me of early Nirvana and bands of that ilk.
Why did I need to listen to this incohetant noise?
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.
"Hey, Brian, the audience screening feedback just arrived in the post from the record company!" "Oh wow, that's great Gerald. Did they like the orchestral pieces?" "Umm, let's see... Orchestral... Orchestral... Uh, no. No mention of orchestral pieces. Hey, is audience feedback usually written in crayon?" "What? Well what did it say?" "The gist of it is that the tracks are too long, too complex, with too many instruments, and it says here that the 17-22 year old market doesn't like that it was in tune." "Oh." "Yeah." "I see." "Yeah. But the record label really liked it and said can we make a bazillion songs to go on the album." "They liked it? OK. Well let's do all that then."
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.
I have never heard of this band until this list. Overall, it is a pretty good alternative rock band. I do appreciate the distorted guitar playing and lo-fi rhythms. Its not the greatest but definitely not bad. I was kinda annoyed by all of the really short spongs. They were on average 1.5 to 2 minutes long, which was weird to me. Favorite Song(s): "A Salty Salute", "Watch Me Jumpstart", "Always Crush Me", "My Son Cool"
This was an odd collection of not quite songs but I'm glad I got to see this project once.
already listened to it, was surprised to see it on here, thats not to say i dislike it tho
En ole koskaan kuullut artistista, joten ei mitään ennakko-odotuksia. Eikä levyn kansi edes paljasta musiikkiityyliä. Odotan mitä tulossa. Erikoinen kokonaisuus, jos nyt oli oikea levy kuuntelussa. Vähän kaikenlaista laidasta laitaan ja punainen lanka hukassa.
Interesting alt rock sound. Enjoyed it
I don't love this quite as much as Bee Thousand. Auditorium and Motor Away back to back makes a great standard length song.
One that I’ll forget I ever listened to.
This was dull, uninspiring and unremarkable. I doubt it was the best album released that week, let alone one to hear before you die. The playlist that followed was chock full of exactly the same. The Americans moaning about Britpop can do one, honestly, this is so much worse
Lame Indie Rock
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?
We’re heating up this week. The club is open. This is lo-fi perfection. Pollard has written more albums than many artists have songs, but a lot of them have a good track or two and the rest is filler. Not true here. Salty Salute gets me hype whenever I hear it. Game of Pricks is their most popular song for good reason (in my top 20). There are too many other good ones to list. Yes, there are some throwaways, but I’ve never minded them as they’re short and spaced in between bangers. As a whole, alien lanes is GBV at or near their best. You’ve got catchy hooks and deliciously strange lyrics and nonstop fun. One of my faves and an easy 5.
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
Only vaguely familiar with this band. I enjoyed the album for it's catchy pop hooks.Sounds like they listened to a lot of Beatles growing up -- most obviously heard in "As We Go Up". Loved that that manged to squeeze 28 songs into a 41 minute record!
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.
Meh. It's dated and unimaginative.
This was an excellent lo-fi album. The melodies were memorable and the instrumentation fit them perfectly. The ability to bounce between dynamics and textures gave the album a suite-like feel that never felt forced. The most striking thing is just how much I heard the Beatles in this album from the melodies themselves to the way the vocal harmonies sounded.
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
Deplorable.
At least it was over quick. Average garage. Not The Ramones and nowhere near The Strokes. Lo-fi and lo-quality.
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.
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....
not bad
Garbage
very weird
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.
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.
I think I may have heard the name Guided By Voices talked about before, but I was completely unfamiliar with their work. This album was not my speed at all. I tend to enjoy things that are different and experimental, but I didn't enjoy listening to this, not could I find anything that stood out to me as important or influential. I'll take a hard pass on GBV.
It's good and fun. But everything can't be a 4.
It sounds like it should’ve come out in 1965 and not 1995. Fuzzy production and jangly guitar parts couple nicely but toothlessly with faux British delivery from the Dayton, Ohio legends. Far from their most engaging are interesting work.
nigger
Another first time listen.
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
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
Sounds like all the other GBV I’ve ever heard. Middle aged man noodling in his shed. Fawned over by other middle aged men.
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
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
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
My favorite kind of album that’s an adventure from start to finish. I love GBV because they more than any other group prove that songwriting is king. They pumped this shit into a hand held tape recorder and it still shines through perfectly. Bee Thousand is still my favorite though.
Not for me, songs are way too short.
👍 Like it. Don't know why I've never listened to GBV before, as they're right up my alley
I don’t get it at all. It sounded like a terrible demo tape.
2.5
Great album! True lo-fi music (not that youtube bs).
Jaunty
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.
So overrated. Like I understand why it's in here but goddamn
Great low-fi indie album
In an alternate universe, where indie is mainstream, this is what flipping through radio stations might sound like.
very solid! weirdly dreamy
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
ok
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.
This is the stuff! Alien Lanes whips ass. Bored of this song? Don't worry, another one will be along in just a minute. Much of this material sounds like it's on nodding terms with some of the dreamier, twang-pop acts from the Sixties. That's cool! It also sounds like this whole album was recorded in shoeboxes of various sizes. The production is, frankly, dogshit. That's cool too! Four stars, because I'll probably never listen to this splendid mess again.
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.
Wow, had not heard of this genre before, and I am fascinated. Totally need to give this more listening time, though I wish they'd redo it in a form other than LoFi.
Definitely lo-fi and even somewhat abrasive sound. I feel like Guided by Voices sounds like 50 other bands that I like, and I'm a sucker for lo-fi rock records. There is something charming about it. It's all at once familiar but unique, I feel like like this was a blueprint for the entire Elephant 6 collective.
This is honestly really cool. I'm a fan of weird indie. Reminds me of a much shorter version of "69 Love Songs". The songs drastically vary in quality with some being downright dogshit, but I think that's part of the album's charm in a strange way. No idea where I recognize "My Valuable Hunting Knife" from.
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.
They tried to do something here. It’s mostly unpleasant.
Nope.
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
I expected Bee Thousand instead of Alien Lanes, but always slightly preferred Alien Lanes, for me their best (and most consistent) album: great sound, great songs from both Robbert Pollard and Tobin Sprout (but I only know 10 albums or so from the period up to Do The Collapse and not the hundreds of albums they made afterwards). I like the length of the songs, probably the album would be less interesting / listenable if the production was not so lo-fi or if the songs were proper songs instead of short sketches. Out of the 28 songs, I would only skip the annoying 1-minute song Ex-SuperModel scote: 9/10
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.
This is pure magic, what a melodic richness. The crappy production and the shortness of the songs only seem to add to the miracle.
Low-fi, indie brilliance
Don't get why the songs are so short.
A diamond in the rough is the best way to describe this album. Hidden beneath the low quality recording style are very meticulously written catchy pop and indie rock songs. Each song is unique and has its own identity on top of that. Fave songs: As we go up we go down, Game of Pricks
Like I said the other day it sounds like an indie version of early songs by the who which is dope. Easy listen too cuz every song is so short but nothing stuck with me in a huge way
Tim said it best, the short tracks is the MOVE. my attention span is fried. Plus these guys have a reallly sick sound. damn the more i listen the more i love it....so glad to have something i really like on this list again. the snoring guy in ex supermodel LOLOL
A ton of really short songs with mostly dumb and/or confusing subject matter that sound like they were recorded on a first gen ipod touch. Somehow this is the recipe for a great album. So many great melodies here, and they're delivered in such a bite-sized way that they could keep the interest of the squirrel in my backyard. This album is the musical equivalent of those split screen tiktoks that show a movie clip on one screen and someone playing a mobile game on the other. There are really no skips here (apart from the god awful snoring track that I refuse to believe is only a minute long). I'm gonna go with a 4 but it's close enough that I gave real thought to a five. Best: Game of Pricks, Blimps go 90, A salty salute
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.
A schizophrenic, rather stupid way to mix an album
Not listening to this one again. Regardless of the content, which already isn't my cup of tea, technically it's just a poor recording. yay it's over
Didn't hold my interest
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.
Gave me some Elvis Costello vibes at times. It was fine.
Canciones con ritmo, de duración corta, sin nada especial que aportar. Simplemente pasables
Genres: Indie rock, lo-fi, power pop Formed: Dayton, Ohio in 1983 Run time: 28 songs, 41 min, 15 sec The eighth full-length album by the American lo-fi band. The longest track on the album is just short of three minutes in length. The shortest is 18 seconds, and most are between two to three minutes. Spotify: Least popular song: 2.2k Most popular song: >14M plays. Considering they are a lo-fi band, they produce a well polished sound. For me though, the tracks don’t have enough punch energy, or substance to be that short. This is another album that makes me wonder why it is on the list of 1001 albums to listen to before you die. It is entirely unremarkable. Listen Again?: No My Rating: *
I've heard so much about GBV but haven't listened much at all. I can really see the appeal after hearing this though. The songs are stripped to the absolute bare minimum - no studio embellishments, not one second of padding or note that isn't strictly necessary. Just catchy, lofi hooks. I dig it.
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.
n tem como
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*
I liked some of this but that song with the snoring was almost enough for me to turn it off.
Most of the songs are immelodious and the guitars are discordant. “Good Flying Birds” was okay but all the songs leading up to that were awful. “Motor Away” was pretty good. “My Valuable Hunting Knife” sounded like an actual song in that the few instruments on the track were on the same page. “Alright” was so bizarre! It’s nearly three minutes long. Other than some ‘Alrights’ early on, there are no lyrics until there are 20 seconds left. Gratefully, the songs are short. Garage rock at its worst.
Not into it 3/10
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.
Bored. When will something happen?
...my instant reaction this is going to be more of that whacky (cool?) stuff on all those nostalgic/atmopsheric/retro soundtracks of Hollywood 1980s 'vietnam' war films. - way out psychadelic road rock 8 track rediscovery stuff... generously or optimistically thinking "ah, We are in Woodstock territory here. Not sure when I will next be in the mood for that..., but maybe this is ithe time?" If "in-a-gadda-da-vida" is meant to sound like their signature anthem for their album, the first 20 seconds of noodling is fun and familiar, but then its a bit overdone and verges on rock opera.... oh my. the vocals lets this down. not for me.
Look, I was happy to listen to this, but when I got to track 16, Hit, & heard the line “giggling faggots”, I lost all desire to listen further. I googled that track & saw that it had not been missed in online debates about homophobic band lyrics &, indeed, homophobic bands. I’d already spent considerable time following online discussions about the meaning of “lo-fi”, a term used to describe this band. That was a fascinating exercise. I’m pretty sure my ears are extremely lo-fi. I wasn’t perturbed by the quality of these recordings. And I’ve never been against the idea that less is more. But these guys ain't The Ramones. And their 20-second tracks just sound like a wank to me. Other than all that, they certainly sounded like they could write a decent pop song. But I’m not listening.
I have tried to dip into the GBV back catalog before, and have been hindered by two factors; 1) the massive size of their catalog (35 albums, plus 22 solo Robert Pollard albums, plus all the miscellaneous stuff), and 2) the critical praise. I mean, look at this review of Alien Lanes from Sputnik Music (https://www.sputnikmusic.com/review/34199/Guided-by-Voices-Alien-Lanes/) "The genius of this is that the album is a bombardment of staggeringly good songs, with nothing less than the staggeringly good anywhere to be found. That they managed to preserve so much brilliance, without giving it a vacuum-packed feel and managing to do the thinking justice with their delivery in such a small space of time, is astounding. And what’s more – oh, so much more – is that everyone involved has an absolute ball doing it." This is just bullshit on the plain face of it. There are, in fairness, a couple of pretty good songs on this record; Game of Pricks, Motorway, Little Whirl. But there is some awful throw-away shit as well; Hit, Gold Hick, etc. And so badly recorded. This is where this gets complicated for me. I like a grungy, lo-fi aesthetic. I love that this is an album of sensible duration (41 minutes) with short songs (28 songs in those 41 minutes!). Pollard can write a good tune when he tries, and the band can crank out some passable rock and roll. But -- and this is a big 'but' -- some editing would help. Does EVERYTHING need to go on tape, and does it all need to be released? And -- I am looking at the GBV fanboys here -- does every note need to be praised to the heavens? Really, this is the demo tape for a potentially good album. A decent producer would listen to this, identify the good songs, send the band into rehearsals to work up some arrangements, which could then be captured for posterity. How good would this album be if you picked the best 12-15 songs and recorded a passable 2 or 3 minute version of each, once it had been thought through a little? All I can hear is wasted potential. I really feel for Bob Ludwig, mastering engineer, who is the unsung hero of this album. I bet Bob was pretty surprised when the record company asked him to try and make a silk purse out of the shitty tapes he was handed. I did a quick A/B comparison with Bee Thousand, the GBV album immediately prior, and you can really hear the difference that great mastering has made. He did a pretty good job with what he was given. I also want to point out that embracing a lo-fi aesthetic doesn't justify cover art as deliberately ugly as this. This is just bad. I think this album infuriates me because it could have been great, but it deliberately chooses to be shit at every turn. And the way that every hiss and sonic fart is hailed by the Cult of GBV as a work of goddamn genius just gives me the irrits. I'm giving this 2.5 stars for being an album that shows some promise, rounded down for the annoying fanboys.
I used to listen to newer Guided by Voices, but this is bad. Sorry.
this did absolutely nothing for me.
0.5/5 unlistenable
Interesting mix of a 60’s Beatles vibe and an 80’s Nee Wave one.
I liked this, but it still felt like it was the demos of songs. I guess that's the point but still it was a little rough. 3.5/5
I think I would have preferred half the songs with twice the material
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
This was a band I kind of missed out on in my youth but I liked this
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.
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.
3.2
i do like a bit of lo-fi, but they've gone and done that thing where they release everything they recorded on one album. a bit of selection would have had a seriously strong 10-12 track album that i probably would have held dear to my heart as a masterpiece, but 28 tracks makes any genre sound drab and repetitive. In fact i'm actually annoyed about this. i want a greatest hits version of this album.
As anal probes go, aliens do it the best. They get right in there and penetrate to the point of bleeding. If I wasn't so turned on, I'd be furious. More, please.
4 lamb chops
ylläpito tietää.. päässyt liian korkealle keskiarvo! lähetti tällästä paniikissa. tynnyrin pohja-albimi, likaista.. (explicit song, leave my EFFIN life alone (holy incredible nastiness lyrics)) 41 minuutin kokoinen virhe game of pricks
I don't feel this aged well.
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.
cute
3.75
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.
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.
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
Indie rock, lo-fi,power pop ... un poco largo.
Look, I'm an old punk so there's a lot here that rings my bells. The lo-fi production, the self-aware without being self indulgent lyrics, the super short track times. It all works for me. Also, can we just talk about the advance for a moment? You boys got $100,000 advance and then turned in this album? That takes some balls. I hope you spent that money well, because there's no way you recouped it with this album. That said, I really really enjoyed it. Pretty great for what it is.
Ugh.
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.
Pop… Wunderbar!
Honestly, I wasn't super excited when I say this album, since I've given Bee Thousand a shot a couple of times and don't really find it to my taste. I like the lofi style, it's just that the songs go by so fast that it feels like you don't get any time to sit with them. This album felt a lot more digestible. It still gets through a wide variety of songs, and each song feels like it has a good amount of room to breathe 4/5
Low quality garbage
They're catchy. woudl be a 4 but these extended editions have too much music.
Good scope between the songs. Other than that, nothing too special
Of all the albums that have ever been made, how this one made the cut is beyond me.
I really like the style of this band. It's sort of loose and raucous, a bit power poppy, a nice fuzzy guitar sound, catchy tunes. My first thought on this album was that it was a lot of little fragments, but after listening a couple of times I see that it's cohesive and keeps my interest throughout. 4 stars.
It's hard to say what I really think overall of this album as it seems to just truck on song after song with no one song ever making it past the 3 minute mark, and the shortest of them coming in at only 18 seconds. At 28 tracks and just over 41 minutes in length, it's a bit overwhelming at first glance and on first listen, most songs give you just enough to be satisfied but I can't help but wish the track list were trimmed down and with the remaining tracks being expanded upon. Personal highlights include "Strawdogs", "Little Whirl", "My Son Cool", "A Salty Salute", "They're Not Witches", "Game of Pricks" and "Motor Away". Overall, this is still an incredibly enjoyable album, and it goes by so quickly that you may as well listen to it all the way through, you'll be done before you know it anyways.
I am inspired by the looseness of the band generally and this album specifically. It doesn't feel over thought or over worked, the short songs feel like brief little journal entries. Feels like a feat to achieve 28 actual songs in 41 minutes. I also like the sound of Robert Pollard's voice, it sounds silky or something.
I'm from Southwest Ohio so this is a big one for me. In my opinion GBV is Ohio''s greatest musical export of all time. They are basically Robert Pollard, and anyone he feels like playing with at the time, but this album is the "classic lineup" at their peak. Many people claim "Bee Thousand" to be their masterpiece, and I love that one too, but I feel like this one is a far more consistent album (no "Kicker of Elves" here). Robert Pollard is a melodic genius, pure and simple. He is so naturally talented that he is constantly overflowing with musical ideas. He is so unbelievably prolific, his discography is staggering. Not only with GBV, but all his solo stuff and side projects as well. He seems to live in a state of constant creative inspiration, and it's largely very consistent in quality. But it's definitely an acquired taste. I was first introduced to them on a mixtape from an older friend who was in college while I was still in high school. I found their truly DIY aesthetic inspiring. It's like there were so many ideas spilling out of him, they had to record them in the quickest, most immediate way possible, without the technical delays of studios. They were able to capture pure, raw creativity as it happened. It showed you what was possible with a four track and seemingly boundless creativity. This album could never have been made in a studio. It would have snuffed out all the energy. Sort of like what happened on their later TVT records. There are many songs I love on this album, that mean a great deal to me personally, but perhaps my favorite GBV track of all time is "Motor Away." It's one of the very few songs that has ever made me cry. And not just a little tear rolling down my cheek either. That song encapsulates a very particular feeling of making a big change in your life, to have it turn out wrong, and then trying to carry on, and convince yourself that you're fine, but you're not. It's a feeling many of us have experienced, but no one has ever articulated it in a more concentrated and potent way than on that song. I have had that feeling more than once in my life, and this song was there for me in a way that at once devastated and comforted me. It would definitely be used in the soundtrack to my life.
Surprised by the brevity of the songs. Overall I enjoy it but I'd say it's more of a vibe than a few specific songs that stick out. Curious to listen to the other "popular" album.
"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.
Uninspired riffs and a bad voice
Now this is what this 1,001 Albums project is all about! I would never have listened to this album, but it’s excellent. I take a lot of inspiration from this album. It’s a bunch of short little minimalist songs, some of them less than a minute, and the album as a whole is still excellent, thriving on the power of melody, songwriting, and the performances, rather than production quality or complexity.
I'VE ENTERED THE GAME OF PRICKS
It's 1995 already. Snippet format is reallly outdated.
Very good album! For some reason I really enjoy that it does sound like it’s coming through on a shitty speaker! Love As We Go Up, We Go Down, Game of Pricks, Motor Away and heard some really good ones for the first time, greatly enjoyed this album and glad I finally gave it a full listen!
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.
Indie rock
One of the worst things I have ever heard. This album will bring you closer to death. Should not be anywhere near a list of 1001 albums to hear before you die, unless for the sole purpose of dying while knowing what a fucking TERRIBLE album sounds like. I hated every single second of this.
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.
2 manee sawngs
Ok
Goat album ja ville kinda lyssna de pånytt men i gueeessss ja borde lyssna andra listalbum
Classic indie rock! They way the short songs blend into each other makes for a uniquely cohesive album, and the songs on their own are quirky yet have a deft pop sensibility. Do listen!
Very nice!! Måst lyssna mer gbv
Lo-Fi pop perfection that crams 28 songs in just over 40 minutes. Sure, the production needs some work but that's the charm of lo-fi. There's pop hooks, rock mini-masterpieces mashed together with experiments; also, if you don't like a song there's no need to worry as another will be along in literally a minute. Best Tracks: A Salty Salute; A Good Flying Bird; My Vaulable Hunting Knife
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.
Really enjoyed this album
Obvio que es lo másss
Forty minutes of Oasis outtakes.
I love eclectic albums like these; a ton of short songs in a normal amount of time. These songs are great and offer a variety of material thrown at you quickly.
A disappointing listen. Lo-Fi that sounded very bad on my hi-fi.
Wenn man hier die besten Lieder heraus nimmt und die etwas dicker produziert, hast du hier ein 5er Album und ein fettes Brett, dass evtl. sogar in den Charts vertreten wäre. Aber das wäre dann nicht GBV :) Muss man honorieren. Gibt von mir knarzige 4 Punkte.
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.
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.
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
Very nice record. I like the short pop-infused songs very much :)
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.
This is cool.
enjoyable
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
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.
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
What a great album. Sometimes I wish the songs were a bit longer, but it definitely is a great listen front to back. 4.5/5
4.5 - end of the album kinda dragged a bit for me
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.
It was interesting, a little different with the song lengths and everything. Some songs did feel like they could be at least 3 minutes long and some shorter. Very experimental with what kind of sounds it can play with, but not the best thing to exist.
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.
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
Alien voices: Lofi thing can be cool I guess but it gets distracting here. Sometimes there’s like a hiss behind the vocal or drums that is kind of harsh on the ear. I like the super short song thing with these tunes but I feel like if all the songs are that short at least some should feel tighter. Maybe there is potential here but I don’t think this is the best version of this album there could be. It’s not even the production, so many of my favorite recordings are very rough sounding demos. I think the sounding like “I don’t care” thing in punk and alternative rock is really overrated and over represented in this list. Music is definitely worth caring about and I think if there is so much amazing music and musicians in the world- why would I choose to listen to this?
I’m getting pretty irritated with how many objectively horrible albums are on this list. art is subjective and listeners have different palates but come on, this is just objectively terrible. The playing is trash, the songwriting is trash and the mixing makes it almost impossible to listen to. There’s nothing redeeming about this to me. 0/5
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.
Pretty good, 3 stars, didn't stun me but didn't turn me off, either.
I really like this album. I've actually been listening to it a bit lately already because I've always been interested in Guided By Voices but was intimidated by their massive catalog. I asked some coworkers who are into GBV on recommendations for which album to start with and they pointed me towards 'Alien Lanes'. For being a 28-track album, it breezes by, probably because it's also only 41 minutes. This can be both a positive and a negative though cause there are really catchy songs I wish would go on longer or would develop a bit more. But I also have to admire that they're willing to take an amazing melody or concept and not wear it out by forcing it into a 5 minute track (the longest song is under 3 min at 2:58), just make it a 90 second song and go onto the next one. I can always just listen to those ones again if I want more. Standout Tracks: A Salty Salute, Watch Me Jumpstart, As We Go Up We Go Down, Game of Pricks, Closer You Are, My Valuable Hunting Knife, King and Caroline, Ex-Supermodel, Blimps Go 90, Little Whirl, My Son Cool, Alright
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.
This was a nice surprise. A bit different to have so many shorter songs, a bit punky in that respect. I recognised some of the songs I think. Will definitely give it another go. Reminded me of a combo of Tame Impala and some of the more psych stuff of the Beatles actually at times
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
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.
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.
cool!
In just 41 minutes, we get spammed with 28 songs that take on so many different styles, influenced by 60s pop (Beatlesesque, psychedelia, sunshine) and their contemporaries in power pop. It's a unique sound and concept that feels like a strange mix of poorly recorded pop songs, which is exactly what it is. The jumps are sometimes smooth but sometimes sudden. They execute the lo-fi style incredibly well to the point that I feel the album would be far worse if not for the high distortion and muddled distant vocals. There're a ton of strange and cool sounds in here. You can tell they swapped what instrument everyone played, and I've heard they did things like drumming on trash lids and slapping Pollard's back to get a vibrato (sounds like "Chicken Blows"?). There are plenty of standout songs that I'll for sure throw in my playlists as a short intermission. Some catchy, some mesmerizing. But for the most part, this is an experience to be enjoyed all the way through. I started listing my favorite songs but the list ended up being over half the album and I'm not even sure there's a single song I wouldn't put on that list if I thought about it hard enough.
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.
28 songs - 41 minutes. I went to hang with friends on a weekend in Maine years ago and why this is barely relevant is because on the long drive home that Sunday on very little sleep the friend who was driving threw in the new Guided By Voices (GBV) album (Isolation Drills). I was only slightly familiar with the band and was under the impression that they were this low-fi indie type band I wouldn't have been interested in - but i immediately *loved* that album; bought it the next day. Highly melodic, an excellently written and big sounding rock album. Isolation Drills was pretty much the extent of my GBV knowledge aside from a few other tracks here and there; I'd put that album on heavy rotation but rarely if ever ventured beyond it to the rest of their catalog; this morning I was kind of excited to see this... But the very first line up there: *28 songs - 41 minutes* sums a lot up. It's goddamn frustrating - each of these demos (they're songs in name only) has that slightly off-kilter melody that I know and *like* from their later *well-produced/mixed* album but this one .... ? Aside from this literally sounding like demos I recorded on TDK-90 cassette tapes in my bedroom decades ago... each track gets going a bit and then...ends?? Frustrating. I can't call it awful because I love this band's melodies but jesus - these are post-it notes written in broken crayon that could have eventually ended up as a good album. How can you get any emotional connection whatsoever to songs that last 90 seconds at most? And just as much - it all sounds *terrible* to the point of being almost unlistenable over the entirety of the record; this honestly could be a neat bonus release for superGBV fans wanting to hear demos/home 4-tracks/behind the scenes writing sessions, but as a major release? No. Slightly angering me as to why this is considered a top 1001 - it's like picking up Hemingway's drunken back of the notebook ideas he left on the dock and calling it a finished product. It's insulting - there are other and better GBV worlds than this. 3/10 2 stars.
I lack useful skepticism when enough thrown material sticks to a wall, at least when that material tastes good already. Perhaps objectively, though, Guided By Voices maneuvers around the common unfulfilled feeling mostly, and sets up the Alien Lanes tracklist as a kind of history. I found that the psych moments worked a lot better than the meditations on a single chord, but every song felt like part of the whole. A little exhausting, even, two-minutes-a-song aside.
Was not a fan of this album. Short songs were great because I'm not sure how many I could listen to.
Eh.
Forgettable.
good ig! canciones cortitas
I definitely disliked this the first time through. It seemed very random and disjointed and unpolished (which, apparently, is the point of "lo-fi"). A second listening revealed a bit more charm, but not enough for me to be a fan.
At first I thought it was boring, but then it started to irritate me.
This is the kind of album that makes it clear why this is "albums you must hear" and not "the best albums." I'm glad I listened to this once and I will not likely choose to listen again. But I've got respect for musicians who say, "I've got an idea for a song," and then just record a song that's 50 seconds long --- no padding, no filler, no long solos, just...here's the song. Lyrics don't need to rhyme or make sense --- the whole album felt very stream-of-consciousness and I appreciated that. The songier songs sounded like 60s British invasion covered by a grunge band and even some of the vocals sounded a bit like Paul McCartney.
This was a strange and unsatisfying listen. Lots of short songs in varying musical styles sent through some sort of 90’s grunge distortion filter. There were some good things I would hear then they would abruptly end, like Cliff’s Notes versions of the songs. What’s with the snoring over Ex-Supermodel? Did I accidentally listen to an ad for a KTEL Record?
Not really my thing. But interesting. Probably won’t listen again though
Guided by Voices are a band that favour the quantity over quality approach which usually makes their albums a bit hard to listen to in full but this is a great album and somehow manages to stay cohesive despite having many short songs. The songs are catchy and fun while never overstaying their welcome.
I didn't know this band.
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.
I absolutely love this beautiful mess of an album and I love more every time I listen to it. Top tracks: Evil Speakers, They're Not Witches, (I Wanna Be A) Dumbcharger, Pimple Zoo, and Always Crush Me.
Als ik dit hoor en mijn ogen sluit ben ik met Arie weer bij GBV in de Melkweg ergens halverwege de jaren 90. Dit album is echt de soundtrack van mijn jeugd, terwijl ik 'm hoogstwaarschijnlijk niet te pruimen zou vinden als ik 'm nu voor het eerst op zou zetten ;)
Ik weet dat sommigen hier helemaal weglopen met deze band, maar voor mij is het onsamenhangend en chaotisch.
Ik kan gaan proberen uit te leggen waarom dit zo briljant is, maar voor de mensen die dit voor het eerst horen zou dat een totaal onbegrijpelijk verhaal zijn. Dus laat die eenen en tweeen maar komen, ik knal er alvast 5 tegenaan! En Jurrien: kom d'r maar in!
28 liedjes in 41 minuten. That says it all.
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.
Bangers
better than average 90's emotions and grunge
Meh, taas melkoista tusinakamaa ja ei erotu hyvässä eikä pahassa muusta britti-pop-rockista.
Meh
Short songs that were fine
that was very boring
Such lovely, lively lo-fi. GBV keeps excellent company, too; that the streamers go from last cut of the record to an excellent cut from Yo La Tengo (a most egregious exclusion from this esteemed index) tells you what you need to know. Their brand new record (fall 2022) suggests how close RP has stayed to the vision, though perhaps not always to the optimal effect.
Meh
The fact that it’s got so many tracks makes it feel much longer than it is but the album is very enjoyable 4/5.