Let's Go Eat the Factory

Guided By Voices

After disbanding in 2004, Robert Pollard not only resurrected Guided By Voices last year, but he’s also reformed the most popular lineup in GBV’s 28 year run. Yes, the mid-90’s lineup featuring Robert Pollard (the band’s only consistent member), Tobin Sprout (co-writer and multi-instrumentalist), Mitch Mitchell (guitars), Kevin Fennell (drums), and Greg Demos (bass) – lineup behind indie rock staples Bee Thousand and Alien Lanes – have returned with Let’s Go Eat the Factory.

The album kicks off with “Laundry and Lasers” and it’s clear that these guys are in no hurry to switch up their signature lo-fi British-invasion sound, which is exactly what their opener aspires to be. The album continues just like any of GBV’s previous work: roughly two-minute punk-inspired tunes. The good news here is that for the most part the band plays really well together and they are able to recapture the classic sound they’d previously mastered 17 years ago. Some songs really do flow well together, like the full-on rock assault “Spiderfighter” with its piano coda; “The Unsinkable Fats Domino” with its punkish tribute to the legendary R&B singer-songwriter; and “Either Nelson” is a completely packaged piano and drum epic with a killer guitar solo to cap it off.

The bad news here is that a lot of the songs feel like they’re missing something. This something is usually another verse or two. Often times the songs are finished when they feel like they’re just starting to build up. Songs like “Doughnut for a Snowman” and “Chocolate Boy” started off so strong, but ultimately left me unsatisfied and wanting more (that’s what she said). And the last couple songs toward the end (“Go Rolling Home” and “The Room Taking Shape”) both clock in at less than 45 seconds and barely qualify as songs. They both build up to album closer “We Won’t Apologize for the Human Race”, which feels like an actual complete song, but didn’t measure up to some of the other stronger tunes on the album. This has always been GBV’s style, but it doesn’t work the way Bee Thousand did because those songs did feel complete and felt more like poetry than songs, which is what’s missing from Let’s Go Eat the Factory.

While it’s good to see the best incarnation of Guided By Voices back together, they just couldn’t recapture the magic of Bee Thousand, though that is a tough standard to hold them to. Should this lineup stick together in the coming years it would give them a better opportunity to return to form.

Recommended Tracks: “Spiderfighter”, “The Unsinkable Fats Domino”, “Imperial Horseracing”,  “Either Nelson”