Guided by Voices - Let’s Go Eat the Factory
Reformed lo-fi cult heroes do their unmistakable glorious shitness like no other
(Fire)
It was maybe only a matter of time before Guided By Voices got back together and made a new record. Responsible for 16 albums in 24 years and led by a guy in Robert Pollard credited with over 1000 songs, expecting them to totally curtail their prolificacy is rather like suggesting a vasectomy to Rod Stewart.
It’s a typically warts and all offering from the Dayton, Ohio lo-fi cult heroes, who reformed in their ‘classic’ 93–96 line-up last year. The unpolished gems of scuzzy melody – ‘The Unsinkable Fats Domino’, ‘Waves’ and ‘Chocolate Boy’ being three standouts – are totally beguiling. To unearth them you may have to dig through 21 tracks of ADD brevity and disorder, shoddy timing and vocals that sound like they’ve been recorded through two tin cans joined with string, but certainly no other band does glorious shitness as unmistakably.