C or D : Guided By Voices.

Count me in the Isolation Drills>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Do the Collapse camp. Isolation Drills is probably top 5 GbV for me.

^^^This. Isolation Drills production served the songs, but Do the Collapse seemed that it just added a couple keyboard presets to some of the songs.

Isolation Drills was my favorite those late-period (pre-reunion) albums for years, but the last couple times I listened to it it felt kind of monotonous in a way the others aren't. I think it's a combination of the production and the songs themselves. Still don't love the production on Do the Collapse, but I think the songs themselves are generally more interesting. "Bride Have Hit Glass" is all-time though, of course.

On Isolation Drills, a lot of the expensive production seems to consist of "let's overdub the same rhythm guitar part eight times", which contributes to a monotonous sound.

To me that's preferable to eight overdubs of Doug Gillard running through his favourite licks.

Which Do the Collapse songs do you feel have this particular problem?

I think he overplays throughout the entire album basically. I'm sure that's more down to Ric Ocasek thinking, "Oh this guy can actually play, I should use him wherever possible".

Poor man's Ohio indie The Who < collection of basement anthems bookended by weirdo lo-fi cut and paste tape experiments.

i like Do the Collapse way better than Isolation Drills personally.

Poor man's Ohio indie The Who < collection of basement anthems bookended by weirdo lo-fi cut and paste tape experiments.

I mean I love a lot of the Gillard era stuff but I took my old VOT/Prop CD with me driving up to in-laws at the weekend, and was just astonished again at how brilliant those albums are, how unique and constantly inspired. Felt like I was transported back to hearing them for the first time as a teen again.

“And oh, mesh gear fox”

There’s just no comparing pre and post 96. Original stuff shits all over gillards robotic playing and mainstream production. Same planet, different worlds.

teenage fbi is all time, chasing heather crazy is good

never really listened to those albums though

never listened to mag earwig either

New album Earth Man Blues can be listened to here: https://www.grammy.com/grammys/news/2021-guided-by-voices-earth-man-blues-premiere-remote-recording

First impression: this could end up being my favorite post-reunion album? I don't know, I really loved Surrender Your Poppy Field. That album felt kind of like a musical to me, which is something Bob's explicitly aiming for with this one. It also kind of gives me Mag Earwhig vibes, probably just because I always thought of that one as a loose concept album about growing up in Dayton, and that's supposedly the concept here.

I've heard only good things about this record so far.

xp As someone whose favorite post-reunion record is by far Surrender Your Poppy Field, I am very excited to read that.

OK yeah, after one listen, this is definitely top tier for this lineup. Much better than the last two records.

oooooh this one sounds genuinely different. I can't help but wonder if Pollard heard the Heidecker bit and decided to mix it up lol

I genuinely wondered that

Hmm I wasn’t too enthused by it. I had the same reaction I’ve had to most of the recent stuff—excited for the first few tracks but it starts to become tedious as it goes. It’s just... more.

Needmore records was their early “label” if I recall

I think it was their/his publisher, as in Needmore Songs. Named after a street in Dayton.

Earth Man Blues does sound different, kind of a patchwork prog thing going on, probably due to the quarantine recording process covered in the grammy article linked above, but I wouldn't say that the songs are necessarily better than ones on the albums leading up to it. I'm not buying the hype in the Rolling Stone review. But it might grow on me after repeated listens and uncovering the "story" that supposedly ties these songs together. I googled John H. Morrison wondering why he was called out as the album presenter on the cover and it is the name of an elementary school in Bob's neighborhood so I feel like that is a big clue in the unifying concept. I'm just not sure how much time I want to put into searching for the payoff of a record that didn't really grab me on the first listen.

I wasn't struck by any conceptual stuff, but I did notice the lyrics and song structures seemed more immediately accessible than a lot of recent-ish Pollard stuff I've heard.

Jen from the IT to thread:@I know every song by Guided By Voices. I shouldn'teven knowWHO THEY ARE#

I'd love to be able to put my finger on what it is about these recent albums that make them so polarizing...like, I've seen a lot of people going nuts for Styles We Paid For, which I've listened to probably 4-5 times and it does absolutely nothing for me. Similarly, it seemed like Space Gun was a consensus favorite and I didn't care for it at all. On the other hand, I think Surrender Your Poppy Field is the best one since Isolation Drills, and I'm in the middle of my second listen to the new one right now and I think it's really, really good.

I can’t listen to anything post Under the Bushes

I am sorta the same. I like space gun though.

I kind of liked some of the ones around when Ric Ocasek produced that one but otherwise just can’t keep up sorry

For whatever reason I was really into Earthquake Glue, but otherwise the only post Under the Bushes album that is special to me is Mag Earwhig! I guess cause it's so close to the golden era, still has a good amount of weirdo charm. Not that I don't enjoy any of the rest of the post 96 stuff at all but my brain categorizes it as a different band entirely. Tobin Sprout element is pretty critical to me.

Isolation Drills was the last great one for me. I am kind of enjoying this new one.

Isolation Drills was my favorite after the early run. Still haven't listened to this new one yet.

Any Cub Scout Bowling Pins fans here? Fun new bubblegum/psych band that happens to have the exact same members as Guided by Voices? New album doesn't start off strong but it's pretty solid after the first four tracks or so.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TLP9_n1_fA

Still waiting for the full-length to get here, but I loved the EP. Really fun stuff and one of my favorite new Pollard side projects.

Yeah tbh I think I like it as much as or more than all but a few of the post-reunion GBV albums

A new gbv album you say? Thought I’d never see the day

someone blasting 'game of pricks' just drove by

👍🏽

Cool. In the running for their best song.

Lot of competition of course.

Both in the sense of good songs and sheer amount of songs too numerous for most sane people to ever evaluate.

GoP overrated. The lazy choice.

Salty Salute ftw

At the moment for me, it's "Twilight Campfighter."

that changes every week or so, tho

I'd nominate "Redmen and Their Wives" from Under the Bushes, Under the Stars as their best song.
It seems typically perverse GBV procedure that they'd bury their best song as track 23 of 24, and then conclude with the only throwaway on the whole record.

Gold Star for Robot Boy

Everybody Thinks I'm a Raincloud

Geez, I didn't even get the title right.

*Everyone

Wait, no, I was right, Youtube had it wrong.

I'm so stressed.