4 April 2013

4th April - Guided by Voices' Alien Lanes


Artist – Album: Guided By Voices – Alien Lanes
Released:  4th April 1995
Sounds Like: "the cost for recording, if you leave out the beer, was about ten dollars"

Anyone, ANYONE, with a serious inclination towards indie music needs to know and love Guided By Voices. They are the absolute embodiment of lo-fi indie cool and have an unsurpassed ability to meld crunching guitars and chaotic production to wonderfully poppy melodies.

Whether Alien Lanes - their first full length album at Matador but one which still sounds like it was recorded in the bedroom - is the album with which to make that first step is debatable. Some fans and critics have a greater affinity and love for the earlier Bee Thousand, whilst the greatest hits album Human Amusements at Hourly Rates would make a wonderful, if obvious, starting point. There’s little argument though that this album still stands as one of their best, and, if it does become the means of your introduction into Robert Pollard’s world, you will not be disappointed.

Kicking off with ‘A Salty Salute’, GbV proceed to blast their way through 28 tiny morsels of DIY rock in just over 40 minutes. Scattered along the way are some of the finest snippets they’ve ever recorded, including ‘Watch Me Jumpstart’, ‘As We Go Up, We Go Down’, ‘Game of Pricks’, ‘Closer You Are’, ‘My Valuable Hunting Knife’ and ‘Blimps Go 90’. God knows what most of these songs mean but the sound and feel of them are magnificent.

The whole lo-fi substrata of indie rock can be difficult to follow, as trends change and even the best bands remain relatively low key. Allow yourself to be guided by Guided by Voices.

Albumaday... rating: 8/10

1.       A Salty Salute – 1:29
2.       Evil Speakers – 0:58
3.       Watch Me Jumpstart – 2:24
4.       They’re Not Witches – 0:51
5.       As We Go Up, We Go Down – 1:37
6.       (I Wanna Be a) Dumbcharger – 1:13
7.       Game of Pricks – 1:33
8.       The Ugly Vision – 1:34
9.       A Good Flying Bird – 1:07
10.   Cigarette Tricks – 0:18
11.   Pimple Zoo – 0:42
12.   Big Chief Chinese Restaurant – 0:56
13.   Closer You Are – 1:56
14.   Auditorium – 1:02
15.   Motor Away – 2:06
16.   Hit – 0:23
17.   My Valuable Hunting Knife – 2:00
18.   Gold Hick – 0:30
19.   King and Caroline – 1:36
20.   Striped White Jets – 2:15
21.   Ex-Supermodel – 1:06
22.   Blimps Go 90 – 1:40
23.   Strawdogs – 1:17
24.   Chicken Blows – 2:21
25.   Little Whirl – 1:46
26.   My Soon Cool – 1:41
27.   Always Crush Me – 1:44
28.   Alright – 2:56

Listen to ‘Game of Pricks’:



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