Artist – Album: Guided By Voices – Bee Thousand
Released: 21st
June 1994
Sounds Like: Shit yeah, it's cool
I stuck this album on
ten minutes ago, and I’m already on the sixth track. Say what you want about
Guided by Voices, but they don’t mess about.
If you are going to say something about them though, I do
hope it’s positive. Because GbV are one of the most important and influential
rock bands of all time. Yep. At times they laid down experimental, punk-tinged
rock tunes of the sort that made a name for fellow cult heroes Pavement. They
mixed that though with bustling pop melodies that certainly rubbed off on
nineties darlings Weezer. Robert Pollard’s mannish vocals and obtuse, childlike
imagery can bring to mind the great Neutral Milk Hotel. Their seemingly unstemmable
flow of ideas has been mirrored by the likes of the Mountain Goats and the
Magnetic Fields’ Stephen Merrit. However, their influence is felt most keenly
on the thousands of great unknown bands worldwide, those who record at home and
on their computers, for whom DIY ethic or a lo-fi quality isn’t a choice but a
necessity.
Released a full eleven years after they first formed, Bee
Thousand was the album that finally helped them bridge that gap from being a
great local band to a great band all round. It fires off great tracks at a
relentless pace – ‘Hardcore UFO’s’, ‘Tractor
Rape Chain’, ‘The Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory’, ‘Smothered In Hugs’ ‘Echos
Myron’ and ‘Gold Star for Robot Boy’ are all brilliant little songs that light up
the first half of the album alone – and strikes a wonderful mix of quirky rock
and gentle pop.
Quite simply, it’s excellent. It may not have been recorded
in a studio, but it’s better than 99.9% of the works that were.
Albumaday... rating: 9/10
1. Hardcore
UFO’s – 1:54
2. Buzzards
and Dreadful Crows – 1:43
3. Tractor
Rape Chain – 3:04
4. The
Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory – 1:45
5. Hot
Freaks – 1:42
6. Smothered
in Hugs – 2:59
7. Yours
to Keep – 1:15
8. Echos
Myron – 2:42
9. Gold
Star for Robot Boy – 1:39
10. Awful
Bliss – 1:12
11. Mincer
Ray – 2:21
12. A
Big Fan of the Pigpen – 2:09
13. Queen
of Cans and Jars – 1:55
14. Her
Psychology Today – 2:04
15. Kicker
of Elves – 1:04
16. Ester’s
Day – 1:51
17. Demons
Are Real – 0:48
18. I
Am A Scientist – 2:30
19. Peep-Hole
– 1:25
20. You’re
Not an Airplane – 0:33
Listen to ‘Echos Myron’:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYtEulKl3yE
Also released on the 21st June:
1965: The Byrds – Mr Tambourine Man
|
Also released on the 21st June:
2004: Badly Drawn Boy – One Plus One is One
|
No comments:
Post a Comment