Best Guided By Voices Album

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

Albums or box sets of new material only. It'll take all day to list everything.

Poll Results

Option	Votes
Bee Thousand (1994)	25
Alien Lanes (1995)	14
Under The Bushes Under The Stars (1996)	10
Propeller (1992)	6
Isolation Drills (2001)	2
Earthquake Glue (2003)	1
Do The Collapse (1999)	1
Mag Earwhig! (1997)	1
Devil Between My Toes (1987)	1
Self-Inflicted Aerial Nostalgia (1989)	1
Vampire On Titus (1993)	0
Same Place The Fly Got Smashed (1990)	0
Suitcase: Failed Experiments and Trashed Aircraft (Box set) (2000)	0
Universal Truths and Cycles (2002)	0
Sandbox (1987)	0
Half-Smiles Of The Decomposed (2004)	0
Suitcase 2: American Superdream Wow (Box set) 2005	0

― kornrulez6969, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:40 (eighteen years ago)

boring answer:alien lanes.
not boring answer:earthquake blue.ut's kinda underrated.

― Zeno, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:55 (eighteen years ago)

glue, that is

― Zeno, Thursday, 10 May 2007 13:58 (eighteen years ago)

I thought Bee Thousand would be the boring easy choice? and yeah, Earthquake Glue's not bad at all -- almost makes me want to give those other late-period albums a second chance.

― bernard snowy, Thursday, 10 May 2007 14:24 (eighteen years ago)

b000. boring and obvious and right. just edging out AL which just edges out propeller which just edges out UTBUTS which just edges out pollard's first solo album which is of course as much of a gbv album as anything listed here.

― fact checking cuz, Thursday, 10 May 2007 14:27 (eighteen years ago)

i wonder how many votes do the collapse will get

― akm, Thursday, 10 May 2007 14:32 (eighteen years ago)

Propeller. That one is definitely my favorite.

― kornrulez6969, Thursday, 10 May 2007 14:40 (eighteen years ago)

Under The Bushes Under The Stars

― M.V., Thursday, 10 May 2007 14:45 (eighteen years ago)

RIP Pete Sampras.

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 10 May 2007 14:46 (eighteen years ago)

Tough. Alien Lanes. I heard that one first and kind of patterned on it. Which might make a good discussion: do any of you find yourselves liking the first album by an artist that you heard best?

― ellaguru, Thursday, 10 May 2007 14:56 (eighteen years ago)

It's between the first one and Propeller for me, no question. I've gone for the one that I don't think will get any votes other than mine!

― myopic_void, Thursday, 10 May 2007 15:16 (eighteen years ago)

I'm gonna go with Alien Lanes too, I guess. It was also the first one I owned, although I saw them live before hearing any of their recorded output and they kinda blew me away for awhile. For awhile I really like isolation drills, tho.

― pj, Thursday, 10 May 2007 15:21 (eighteen years ago)

I voted Alien Lanes, but my second would probably be Isolation Drills.

― Jeff, Thursday, 10 May 2007 15:21 (eighteen years ago)

UTBUTS. excellent career bridge. and for my money, the best hit-to-miss ratio.

― will, Thursday, 10 May 2007 15:23 (eighteen years ago)

PROPELLER.

― ian, Thursday, 10 May 2007 15:27 (eighteen years ago)

Haha. Christ, did we ALL get Alien Lanes first?

― I eat cannibals, Thursday, 10 May 2007 15:29 (eighteen years ago)

B 1000 & AL are definitely strong contenders. And I need to listen to Propeller again..

say what you want to about these poll threads, but they've had me digging out stuff I haven't listened to in ages. great deterrent for over-spending on new records.

― will, Thursday, 10 May 2007 15:32 (eighteen years ago)

Propeller

― Stormy Davis, Thursday, 10 May 2007 15:42 (eighteen years ago)

I got Bee Thousand first. I always thought that was the consensus favorite, but for me it's probably 4th behind Propeller, Alien Lanes, & Under The Bushes.

― kornrulez6969, Thursday, 10 May 2007 15:50 (eighteen years ago)

I got Alien Lanes first, and though I've been listening to that one a LOT lately (for the first time since 10th grade it's been in heavy rotation), I think I do like Propeller more overall.

― ian, Thursday, 10 May 2007 15:52 (eighteen years ago)

I went with Propeller, but I honestly think Do The Collapse is my second favorite. For the most part, the songs are pretty good and the production is exactly what I expect from a GBV/Ocasek combo. Pollard may not like it, but with his willingness to literally release anything & everything, I don't trust any value judgments he makes.

― EZ Snappin, Thursday, 10 May 2007 16:09 (eighteen years ago)

I voted for Bee Thousand.

A more interesting question might be which is the best late-period one (from Do The Collapse onward). I'd probably choose Earthquake Glue there.

― ciderpress, Thursday, 10 May 2007 16:15 (eighteen years ago)

A more interesting question might be which is the best late-period one

Isolation Drills by about a million miles

― Tom D., Thursday, 10 May 2007 16:16 (eighteen years ago)

Propeller

― Steve Shasta, Thursday, 10 May 2007 16:22 (eighteen years ago)

The best GBV is a 4 disc CDR box my friend gave me with all their choice bits and none of the noodly experiments leading nowhere, complete with great stuff from all the side-projects up through 97 or so.

― Mr. Odd, Thursday, 10 May 2007 17:09 (eighteen years ago)

say what you want to about these poll threads, but they've had me digging out stuff I haven't listened to in ages.

Indeed! I've pulled out Pylon, Kristin Hersh's solo records, delved into John Foxx & early Ultravox, early Simple Minds and Hetch Hetchy all because of ILM threads.

great deterrent for over-spending on new records.

Um, no. I'm buying more stuff than usual this year, in large part due to ILM inspiration.

― Mr. Odd, Thursday, 10 May 2007 17:12 (eighteen years ago)

Best late period disc = Speak Kindly Of Your Volunteer Fire Department.

It's billed as Robert Pollard & Doug Gillard, but in no way does it differ from a GBV record, and to me it's topped only by B1000 and Propeller.

Also late and v good is Universal Truths & Cycles.

Here I'll vote b1000. It breathes so nicely as an album, the shambling bits work, and it's just the right length.

― Jon Lewis, Thursday, 10 May 2007 17:19 (eighteen years ago)

Best late period disc = Speak Kindly Of Your Volunteer Fire Department.
It's billed as Robert Pollard & Doug Gillard, but in no way does it differ from a GBV record, and to me it's topped only by B1000 and Propeller.

hear hear. it differs from gbv only inasmuch as it's a very lo-fi homemade kinda recording, whereas gbv by that point in their career where only using their name for big-sounding studio recordings. but it was a nice little return to form.

― fact checking cuz, Thursday, 10 May 2007 17:33 (eighteen years ago)

yeah gotta go with Bee Thousand altho that one and Alien Lanes and Propeller are pretty much inseparable for me. but Bee Thousand was the one I heard first.

― dmr, Thursday, 10 May 2007 17:37 (eighteen years ago)

Without question, the two I keep coming back to:

Tonics & Twisted Chasers
Sunfish Holy Breakfast

― socks, Thursday, 10 May 2007 18:48 (eighteen years ago)

alien lanes the most overrated GbV disc.

isolation drills & bee thousand in tie for best

propeller/vit 2-on-1 disc taking up the next spot in the queue

― electricsound, Friday, 11 May 2007 08:21 (eighteen years ago)

i got propellor/vampire first, and loved 50% of the songs. but Alien Lanes was the first album where i was instantly and utterly seduced by that 'random jumping from radio station to radio station' magic.

― stevie, Friday, 11 May 2007 08:58 (eighteen years ago)

Alien Lanes is better than bee thousands only because it has more songs on it, so,in percentage, more good stuff.

― Zeno, Friday, 11 May 2007 09:11 (eighteen years ago)

Heard Alien Lanes first, bought UTBUTS first and it remains my favourite. Will pretty much summed it up with excellent career bridge. and for my money, the best hit-to-miss ratio.

N.B. have never ever liked any of Tobin Sprout's songs.

― ledge, Friday, 11 May 2007 09:24 (eighteen years ago)

ooh, but there's a couple of great tobin tracks on UTBUTS....

― stevie, Friday, 11 May 2007 12:48 (eighteen years ago)

Nah, I find voice really wimpish, and the melodies seem either weak or weary and plodding.

― ledge, Friday, 11 May 2007 13:21 (eighteen years ago)

Hard for me to choose the best. I went with "Self Inflicted Aerial Nostalgia" just because it's the one I've beem listening to most recently. It's got "Paper Girl," "Liar's Tale," "Short on Posters," a bunch of other ones. The first 4 albums are pretty unheraled in general despite lots of great songs on these (and some not so great...)
I think the fact that they come as a boxset makes it harder to wade through all four albums.

Also, if the suitcases are going to be the poll, you gotta include "King Shit and the Golden Boys."

― ColinO, Friday, 11 May 2007 14:18 (eighteen years ago)

I gotta say, first love: Bee Thousand. Though "My Son Cool" slays

― Mr. Que, Friday, 11 May 2007 14:34 (eighteen years ago)

8080 on both counts!

― pretzel walrus, Friday, 11 May 2007 14:38 (eighteen years ago)

so if i was going to buy one Pollard solo record, which should it be? I don't think I've ever owned or heard one in it's entirety.

― will, Friday, 11 May 2007 15:08 (eighteen years ago)

the Pollard / Gillard one rocks (Speak Kindly of your Volunteer Firefighters or whatever)

Pop Zeus! Tight Globes!! Do Something Real!

― dmr, Friday, 11 May 2007 15:13 (eighteen years ago)

but the first pollard solo album, not in my airforce is the consensus fave, and it's high up in my pantheon of gbv albums, period. it's very much a part of pollard's one great run, from around '92 to '96.

― fact checking cuz, Friday, 11 May 2007 15:27 (eighteen years ago)

the Pollard / Gillard one rocks (Speak Kindly of your Volunteer Firefighters or whatever)

its one of my personal favourites of all the gbv canon, and myfavourite of all of his collabs with doug. and YES to the early albums, tho they're all too patchy for me to choose - Alien Lanes is that weird GBV album where i love the flow of it so much i don't want to skip any of the tracks. the sequencing seems just *perfect - there;s no sense of 'oh, that was a dud song', because the momentum is so strong you're into another great song before you realise it.

― stevie, Friday, 11 May 2007 16:14 (eighteen years ago)

where is "King Shit And The Golden Boys" in this poll?!? That is totally my favorite. it was part of the Scat box. Oh well, Alien Lanes it is.

― sleeve, Friday, 11 May 2007 22:05 (eighteen years ago)

I'm obviously in the minority here, but Mag Earwhig is my fave. It was the first I bought of theirs, though I did see them live when they were touring Alien Lanes. Of course I'm an old Cobra Verde / Death of Samantha fan, so I would of course like this one more...

― MC, Saturday, 12 May 2007 09:27 (eighteen years ago)

'crockers favourite song' off king shit has long been my most cherished gbv tune

― stevie, Saturday, 12 May 2007 15:47 (eighteen years ago)

Can anyone tell me anything about this new solo EP Silverfish Trivia? It just popped up on eMusic yesterday and apparently contains string arrangements...

― Jon Lewis, Saturday, 12 May 2007 19:38 (eighteen years ago)

ten years pass...

I can't believe how much I'm enjoying Space Gun. Easily their best since at least Isolation Drills.

― DavidLeeRoth, Tuesday, 3 April 2018 11:22 (seven years ago)

five years pass...

the new one is really good. i couldn't believe it at first. thought it was some kind of trick. but no. each song is classic. all-time best 'best since' ever list? best since waved out?

― reggie (qualmsley), Monday, 24 July 2023 15:29 (two years ago)

The records started getting really good again a while back imo. Still absorbing this new one but I’ll be psyched if it’s as good as how do you spell heaven or crystal nun cathedrals or the ESP Ohio record.

― ColinO, Monday, 24 July 2023 16:23 (two years ago)

Is this the one with the most regrettable title of "Welshpool Frillies"?

― John Donne In Concert (Tom D.), Monday, 24 July 2023 17:36 (two years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.