11/15/2023 0 Comments Alex sparkle tattoo pensLike Paul McCartney conceiving the epochal "Yesterday" and "Let it Be" in his dreams, some of Pollard's greatest songs have arisen from intentional mishearings and decontextualizations.Īnd "The Best of Jill Hives" wasn't the only one: "My Future in Barcelona" came from "the future of Barcelona," vis-à-vis one televised soccer team or another. " My Future in Barcelona" ( Zeppelin Over China, 2019) Pollard has written many more developed songs, but never one this degree of distilled impact Through the tape-recorder hiss, "Game of Pricks" is like every song on Meet the Beatles rolled into one, and shot out of a cannon into your solar plexus. ("I'll climb up on your house/ Weep to water the trees" is one of Pollard's most moving images.) But it's their connection to the melody that will truly make your head spin. With due respect to that one, seek out the rawer, more concise Alien Lanes version.Įither way, though, Pollard’s lyrics are fantastic - full of mistrust and self-flagellation and catharsis. The most popular version of "Game of Pricks" tends to be the one from their Tigerbomb EP, which features two oldies recorded anew in a professional studio. (Pollard seems to think so, too: over the course of at least one concert, they've played it twice.) While Bee Thousand seems to be the desert island disc for many fans, "Game of Pricks" is arguably GBV's signature song. Before (or after) you digest Whirlpool Frillies, take a quick run through 10 of Guided by Voices' most powerful songs - solo and side projects notwithstanding. Safe to say, there are a lot more coming. A return to live-to-tape recording after at least half a dozen executed remotely, the new album features numerous sluggers worth diehards' and neophytes' time, like "Meet the Star," "Awake Man," "Seedling," and "Radioactive Pigeons." Guided by Voices continue to forge ahead with their 38th album, Whirlpool Frillies, released July 21. From this run of albums has come cuts that stand up to the classics, like "My Future in Barcelona" and "Mr. and Doug Gillard, bassist Mark Shue and drummer Kevin March. At the top of the 2010s, Pollard brought back some classic-era members across six albums, they produced a number of solid songs, like "Class Clown Spots a UFO" and "Flunky Minnows."Īrguably more consequential has been their current lineup - a mix of old and new faces, in guitarists Bobby Bare Jr. Since then, there have been two additional, distinct eras. The idiosyncratic, touching, wacko, and feverishly productive Ohio rock band would release one more album, 2004's Half Smiles of the Decomposed, before temporarily pulling the plug. There's just one unavoidable problem: it stops at 2003, because that's when it came out. "14 Cheerleader Coldfront," his crackly, acoustic 1992 duet with his old foil, Tobin Sprout, segues seamlessly into the gripping, aerodynamic "Twilight Campfighter" - from the slickly produced Isolation Drills. Lo-fi, hi-fi, mid-fi: it's all Pollard, and it all flows together. It came in the form of 2003's The Best of Guided By Voices: Human Amusements at Hourly Rates - a mixtape-style program where Pollard seamlessly toggles between the band's eras. In a sense, making a Guided by Voices essential tracks list is redundant: the band's mastermind, Robert Pollard, already made one for you.
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