Guided by Voices - Bee Thousand

Hi there! I've got about an hour to kill, so I thought I'd write some. This is good practice; school starts this Thursday, and it's time to start kicking my brain into gear.

Today's album: Guided by Voices - Bee Thousand

Genre(s): Indie Rock, Lo-fi
Released: June 20, 1994
Running time: 20 songs, 43:27
In a nutshell: tape-hiss bliss

One of my all time favorites has popped up today. This is good, I am totally in the mood for this music.

Bee Thousand is an indie cult classic, the masterpiece of GBV's songwriting duo, Robert Pollard and Tobin Sprout. I think it takes a couple of listens to really get this album, partly because the fuzzy lo-fi aesthetic doesn't come easily to everyone, and partly because of Pollard's schizo lyrics. If you can digest these aspects, then it comes to you: these songs are fucking catchy. And there is no filler! They could have taken a handful of these songs, extended them by a couple of minutes (most of the tracks are under two minutes), added filler songs, and still have had a nice album filled with rich moments.

In my head, I used to compare Pollard/Sprout to Lennon/McCartney. They do have some similarities; for one, they both have the same good-cop-bad-cop thing going on. Sprout adds a more sensitive, poppy sound to Pollard's rough, psych-punk tendencies, although he tends to contribute less than McCartney did (Sprout wrote 5 of the 20 tracks on Bee Thousand). Both songwriting teams also split up to pursue rather flat solo careers. Sprout's mewing sensitivity is boring without Pollard's louder musicianship, and Pollard's wacky imagination is too raw without Sprout's pop sensibilities.

I've never listened to any other GBV albums, mostly because I'm still stuck on this one. I have Do the Collapse, and I'm a little bit afraid to listen to it as it is frequently referred to as GBV's "clean album". I used to have time to listen to albums I knew I would hate, but I have been extra busy lately. That's fine by me.

Until next time, friends!