Let’s Go Eat The Factory and Class Clown Spots A UFO, the last two, post-reunion albums from Guided by Voices, struggle frantically to reignite a dead engine. Both albums eventually catch, even if they don’t soar as the band’s pre-split Bee Thousand and Alien Lanes do.
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Fans of departed latter-day guitarist Doug Gillard may claim that there’s no classic GBV lineup, but Robert Pollard, Tobin Sprout, Mitch Mitchell, Kevin Fennell and Greg Demos needed each other more than they cared to admit. Beer and in-your-face lo-fi remain the easy trademarks, along with Pollard’s lifelong obsessions with the military, robots and aviation of all kinds. He still tries to sound like David Bowie while the others try to sound like the Who, but their specific and passionate failures at each still spell a fascinating form, if not a reliable content. On the new records, voices themselves — falling, foaming, smearing, chasing and clobbering one another — stick best with the ear. On stage, of course, they’ll have their stalwart back catalog to fall back on. Stand close, but watch out for spillage from Pollard’s everlasting cans of foul brau.
