Sloan: Alive & Alright (2023)

 Cracking live set from one of my favorite bands of all time, performing one of their greatest albums live in front of a tiny crowd on a sound stage, back in 2000. The tracks are delivered slightly out of order, and there is one extra song, but this is still an outstanding account of Sloan’s powers as a live band.

Guided By Voices: Cool Planet (2014)

 The 6th and final album of the reunion era, Cool Planet might not be as immediate as some of the earlier ones but there are still several great tracks here. The best are from Tobin Sprout, who offers up several gems including “All American Boy” and “Narrated By Paul” (among others). The rest of the album is dominated by Bob Pollard and it does not sound too far off from his solo work of the time. While it can be argued that he saved his best songs for those solo albums but there are still many fantastic tracks here, including “Males Of Wormwood Mars” and “Table At Fool’s Tooth”. 

By this point, Kevin Fennell had been sacked and replaced by former/future GbV drummer, Kevin March, so the whole “classic lineup” thing was kaput. There must have been other issues with the lineup as, a few months after this album the band abruptly split. Tours were cancelled and the bridge was burned. Sad but that reunion had never been expected in the first place, so every song and album was a gift. 

Within three years of that split, a new GbV came into being and has since, without any lineup changes, has since released sixteen albums (we’ll talk about those later).

Guided By Voices: Motivational Jumpsuit (2014)

 This 5th reunion era album was the one that always seemed to elude me, until this week, and I may be hearing this for the first time ever. As with all of the albums from this era (or any era really), there are a lot of really killer tracks (including some fantastic Tobin Sprout offerings) and a lot that don’t really differentiate from other tracks from this period. That said, this album is remarkably consistent and I am very glad to finally welcome it to the collection.

Guided By Voices: English Little League (2013)

 The 4th album to come from the reconstituted GbV came only 15 months after the first but there still was no shortage of material and ideas. As always, some of it is classic GbV and some of it is way left field. At the time I felt it was getting to be too much and it all started to blend together, and guess I kinda feel that way still but, considering how that story unfolded (and continues to), hindsight and distance has given this album identity and purpose. So long as you have that then I guess you’re okay. There would be another album around the corner anyway….

Guided By Voices: Down At The Racetrack (2013)

 In the midst of the deluge of albums and singles to come during the reunion era came this six track EP that harkens back to their early ’90s releases such as The Grand Hour, Get Out Of My Stations, Static Airplane Jive, etc. Solid little record.

Guided By Voices: Class Clown Spots A UFO (2012)

 Proving that Let’s Go Eat The Factory was no fluke, the reconstituted Guided By Voices bounded back five months later with this set which is one of the best of this era. This one just hits, right and left. It’s a bit more obtuse than Factory, but also a bit more consistent. “Keep It In Motion” is a killer single and the title track is just one of the best GbV tracks ever.

Guided By Voices: Let's Go Eat The Factory (2012)

 The arrival of Motivational Jumpsuit rendered my reunion-era GbV collection complete. It’s been a long time since I have explored this period, which consisted of two years, six albums, and twenty 7” singles. Tobin Sprout was back. So was Mitch Mitchell, Kevin Fennell, and Greg Demos. These are the dudes that played on those lo-fi ‘90s albums that put the band on the map. 

Let’s Go Eat The Factory arrived in early 2012, and just like that GbV was back, eight years after a completely different lineup was put to bed. It seems like there was a deliberate attempt to make this album seem more in line with those patchwork early releases, even though most of the recordings are quite hi-fi. Fortunately it works and what we have is a fantastic, extremely underrated GbV album. It’s nice to have Tobin Sprout’s songs back in the running, even if they are mostly all solo efforts that are flown in remotely. 

This is gonna be a fun dive.