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In my experience, the best way to get into GBV is by having another fan initiate you. Otherwise, I don't think it will quite work - the GBV catalog is so big that you really need a tour guide. There isn't any one album to suggest to start with, though there are some records which are more accessable than others.
Bee Thousand is the most beloved of the GBV album by the fans, and contains a lot of GBV's pop classics - "I Am A Scientist", "Tractor Rape Chain", "Hot Freaks", "Echos Myron", "Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory", "Peephole" - but it's also very lo-fi and strange.
The Alien Lanes album also has its fair share of classics - "A Salty Salute", "My Valuable Hunting Knife", "Motor Away", "Game Of Pricks", "The Closer You Are", "Watch Me Jumpstart" - but is mostly a big lo-fi sound collage.
Propellor comes before Bee Thousand, and is a pretty solid record. It's more hifi than Alien Lanes or Bee Thousand, but has a similar spirit. "Weed King", "Quality Of Armor", and "Lethargy" are the popular songs from this album.
The more recent albums are more hi-fi, but there's just so many of them that it's hard to pin it down to just one.
Under The Bushes, Under The Stars has a lot of wonderful songs on it ("Cut-Out Witch", "Don't Stop Now", "Sheetkickers", "Rhine Jive Click", "The Official Ironmen Rally Song", "Lord Of Overstock" "Acorns & Orioles"), but has a lot of filler on it too, I think. It's maybe not the best album to start off with, but a good third or fourth purchase, for sure.
Not In My Airforce is the first GBV album which is billed as a Bob Pollard solo album. Pollard "solo albums" only exist as an economic necessity - it's all GBV, but he needs to put records out under different names to play the record industry game. Not In My Airforce is a good little record, but gets a little too selfindulgent in areas - a lot of acoustic demos and a big collage of tunes at the end. There's some amazing songs on this one, though - "Psychic Pilot Clocks Out", "Get Under It", "Girl Named Captain", and "Maggie Turns To Flies" are all among my big all-time GBV favorites.
Mag Earwhig is the next proper GBV record, and is one of my personal favorites. It's something of a prog-tribute, some of it sounds quite a lot like Peter Gabriel-era Genesis. It's a dark, melodramatic album, and more polished than the records that went before it. It has a great overall flow, but has a lot of great individual songs - "Choking Tara", "Portable Men's Society", "Now To War", "Sad If I Lost It", "Learning To Hunt", "The Finest Joke Is Upon Us", and the hit "Bulldog Skin". The songs from this album are almost never played live anymore, unfortunately.
Waved Out is another Pollard 'solo album', and is a fairly dark little album. The album seems a bit like a Wire tribute to me, musically - it's not hard to imagine a lot of these songs fitting in rather well on their first three records. I really love this album, especially "Subspace Biographies", "Whiskey Ships", "Caught Waves Again", "People Are Leaving", "Make Use", "Wrinkled Ghost", and "Waved Out".
Kid Marine is the next Pollard record, and it's not quite as amazing as Waved Out, though a lot of people say that this is one of their favorites. It's another dark one, this was a pretty sad period of Bob's life, I think. It's one of the more prog influenced GBV records, though there's quite a lot of new wave influences on it too. "Submarine Teams" is the big classic song on this record.
Do The Collapse was meant to be GBV's big commercial breakthrough, but it didn't really work out. It's the glossiest GBV release by far in terms of production, but that's not the problem. A lot of the songs on this album are rather forgettable, it's a nothing-special kind of album. However, one of the best GBV pop songs ever is on the record, "Teenage FBI". "Hold On Hope" is pretty good if you're into sappy power ballads, and "Surgical Focus", "Dragons Awake", and "Things I Will Keep" are perfectly respectable Pollard compositions.
The record which should have been their big pop hope is the one that follows, Speak Kindly Of Your Volunteer Fire Deptartment, another Pollard release on their Fading Captain record label. Speak Kindly is so wonderful - it has a real early British Invasion feel to it, I think. It's a tight record, packed full of the 'hits' - "Tight Globes", "Pop Zeus", "Frequent Weaver Who Burns", "Slick As Snails", "Life Is Beautiful", "Do Something Real", "Soul Train College Policeman", "And I Don't (So Now I Do)". This is very special record, and I think it is one of the best places to start.
Isolation Drills is the next Guided By Voices record, and I think it's one of the best. It pulls together a lot of the musical themes from the past few records into a nice concise and accessable package. There's a good number of 'hits' on this one - "Chasing Heather Crazy", "Glad Girls", "The Brides Have Hit Glass", "Skills Like This", "Fair Touching". I quite like this album, and it's probably one of the most immediately likable GBV albums.
Choreographed Man O War is the next Pollard record, but I wouldn't really recommend it unless you have the other records first. It has three truly great songs ("I Drove A Tank", "Edison's Memos", "Instrument Beetle"), but is overall nothing special.
The most recent GBV album Universal Truths And Cycles is another fairly accessable record, though it is fairly sprawling. It's got a handful of killer singles on it - "Back To The Lake", "Everywhere With Helicopter", "Cheyenne" and the title song, and the rest of it holds up very well too.
There's a lot of other GBV releases that I haven't mentioned, with lots of amazing songs scattered throughout, but this is probably a decent rough guide to start out with. I'll throw in a GBV 'greatest hits' sampler with your package, Sean. That should get you on the right track. I think getting a best-of compilation or two is the best way to get into the band, it worked for me, and it's worked for the folks who I've turned on to the band. |
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