GUIDED BY VOICES - UNDER THE BUSHES, UNDER THE STARS
I've been meaning to do this for awhile, and have now time and inclination to get around to it. In my original review, I called it "good, but not great", giving it the same score as Eric's Trip's Forever Again at a 7/10 (for anyone looking to get into Eric's Trip, I recommend the superior Love Tara), one of the issues being that in comparison to Bee Thousand and Alien Lanes, it was hardly experimental. This may have been correct, but I think Under the Bushes offers more of something for everyone even than their prior two albums, while also, in my opinion, having more awesome songs than more palatable later works like Isolation Drills. First off, this album is almost as experimental as Alien Lanes: to a non-GBV fan, "Man Called Aerodynamics" sounds just as out there as "Ex-Supermodel". Robert Pollard just approaches things so differently, you sort of have to forgive all of his foibles. Admittedly, the first half is weak by Guided by Voices standards (which is to say, admitting the odd piece of crap for a few gems). "Rhine Jive Click" and "Lord of Overstock" are eminently forgettable despite the brilliance of the aforementioned opening track and the should-be classic, "The Official Ironman Rally Song". The second half, basically beginning with "Your Name is Wild", however, is as good as anything they've ever released, if more traditional. "Ghosts of a Different Dream" is a terrific song in tune and content that wouldn't be out of place alongside the best Post-punk of the '90's. The album shifts into even another gear, however, starting with "Underwater Explosions", a Pollard pop song with class and introspection - both intelligent and unavoidably catchy. "Atom Eyes", "Don't Stop Now" and "Office of Hearts" are just as good as well, the latter beginning with some tasty GBV darkness before bubbling into a chorus that's so good, I can't believe it took until 1995 for it to exist. Then "Drag Days" emerges with, shockingly again, an incredibly display of sensitivity (though for all his affectation, Pollard always could relate to the everyteen - "Game of Pricks" even says as much), and "Redmen and Their Wives" is like a sparse and tasteful ode to Americana. This album deserves to be up there with it's two more famous predecessors, just like "Ghosts of Different Dream" and "Drag Days" deserve comparison with "Echos Myron" and "My Valuable Hunting Knife". This album marks a transition to being a normal band, but there aren't many growing pains here.
PULP - THIS IS HARDCORE
I give this a deservedly high rating before, but I'd be remiss if I didn't add that this was in part due to Jarvis Cocker becoming my idol this summer. Now, I know exactly why this album deserves to be well received, to the extent that, having ordered Different Class which should arrive sooner or later, I'm not sure how it can live up to the Pulp album I already have. What makes This is Hardcore so great is that it manages to be a concept album - overused language or no - without being ostentatious about it. It is meant to be a single work, and succeeds fabulously. "The Fear" establishes the premise, general malaise. This malaise can be brought about by anything - old age, drug abuse, what have you. Thereafter, the album attempts to conquer it, and as I mentioned before, whether it does remains in question, which may or may not be kind of the point. Anyway, in "The Dishes", Jarvis compares his own aging to Jesus' crucifixion and ... wait for this ... then depicts his own rebirth and journey to redemption. "Party Hard", "Help the Aged", "This is Hardcore", and the rest of the songs between this point travel slowly through increasingly effectual attempts at redemption, shifting from attempting to continue hedonism in the near future to remembering and accepting the past, finally emerging from "Glory Days" with the realization that what's done is done. In "The Day After the Revolution", the album finally comes to its resolution, Jarvis clearly stating "the fear is over". Not only is this an album that tells a story, it's a good album that tells a story. It doesn't get with most people on being a redemptive album with a powerful message (unlike, in my opinion, Tommy, which is more or less superficial as I see it), it only gets recognition for being good music. All in all, though, This is Hardcore may be one of the most therapeutic albums ever recorded.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ and now for one of my personal favorites ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
IDLEWILD - 100 BROKEN WINDOWS
This is probably my personal favorite album, for a number of reasons. First of all, it helped me get through fall of freshman year, so it's very near and dear to my heart. In general, however, I think 100 Broken Windows is a legitimately great album, even if basically everyone has either never heard of it or doesn't see it that way. 100 Broken Windows is, first of all, supremely emotive, utilizing both post-hardcore energy and power pop sensitivity. The album quickly shows its potency in opener "Little Discourage", amping it up yet again in "I Don't Have the Map" with its commentary on trust and individualism in its chorus of "you can't cope without the contract". "These Wooden Ideas" and "Roseability" continue this energy, adding their commentary on philosophy in a way that actually makes sense. It's one thing to name drop Gertrude Stein in a song. That's cool, but meaningless in the end. It's another to provide an interpretation of Gertrude Stein into everyday life in song form - the basic idea being that images are meaningless, pairing well with the credo "don't be real, be postmodern" - a statement with a glib sarcasm typical of Idlewild (or perhaps more properly Roddy Woomble) even in their more sedate works. "Idea Track" takes this philosophizing to its maximum, creating an entire aesthetic around interpretations of modernity with it's mathematical and powerful guitars and it's invocation of modern technology with fin de seicle worry, finishing with poetry and a violin chord that brings us back to the very basis of music. "Let Me Sleep (Next to the Mirror)" may be one of the most beautiful and sensitive yet potent songs ever recorded and provides a new hope in the face of the ultra-current wave of sound that preceded it. "Listen to What You've Got" basically starts the album anew, calling for a return to simplicity, saying "you might as well be talking backwards" and "you might as well be talking to yourself". "Actually It's Darkness", perhaps the cleverest song ever written, begins with a deliberately cheesy and derivative riff and builds it into a commentary on 21st Century cynicism and trust, begging the question, if we doubt this, why do we believe that. "Rusty", about whose title I wonder whether it came from producer Bob Weston, math rockers Rodan's lone full-length, or elsewhere, once again calls for a return to simplicity, breaking down the listener for the last time on the album before it finally and once-and-for-all turns to sensitivity. "Mistake Pageant"'s chorus of "you've had bad luck, and I know what it feels like to have bad luck" preaches understanding, while "Quiet Crown", another song that should be an indie classic, inspires nostalgia like no other song, perhaps especially so because my home state of Maine is like the Scotland of America (Scotland presumably being the subject of the song). Finally, the sedate but persistent "Bronze Medal" closes out the album, reminding the listener that no matter how hopeless we are, we always have the little victories.
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