Guided by Voices has never had problems coming up with albums that are packed with many short songs with surreal subject matter and bizarre titles. But Guided by Voices hasn’t always pulled it off with as much ease, grace and skillful songwriting as it has with its newest album, Let’s Go Eat the Factory.
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Unlike a lot of bands that are slapped with the “lo-fi” label, the sound on Dayton, Ohio-based Guided by Voices’ new album is warm, endearing and completely unpretentious. Straightforward and rough lo-fi tracks are juxtaposed with polished pop songs that would not sound jarringly out of place on top 40 radio, thanks to the craftsmanship of Robert Pollard, the prolific 54-year-old ex-schoolteacher who serves as the band’s vocalist and songwriter.
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Reminiscent of some of the band’s best work, like 1994’s Bee Thousand, the album includes lo-fi, sparse tracks that segue into melodic, polished near-ballads. Songs like “Hang Mr. Kite,” “Who Invented the Sun” and “Chocolate Boy” might surprise early fans of Guided by Voices with their relatively lush instrumentations.
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“Old Bones,” which comes near the end of the album, is a song with what sounds like the highest production values on the entire record. Even when Guided by Voices enlists this kind of production, it doesn’t sound overblown, and it doesn’t compromise the homemade ethos that has been with the band since its beginnings in the early ‘80s. The songwriting of “Old Bones” is so solid that it doesn’t collapse beneath the weight of its own production.
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Listening to Let’s Go Eat the Factory, like listening to most Guided by Voices albums, is akin to stumbling upon an old home recording in a old musician’s attic, dusting it off and giving it a listen. But even the shortest songs don’t seem like unfinished scraps, and the songs’ melodies are not tortured or contrived; they feel comfortable and cozy, almost as though they’ve been lingering in the back of your mind for years.
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Let’s Go Eat the Factory has lots of the jangle and hiss of Guided by Voices’ previous efforts. And it just wouldn’t be Guided by Voices if the songs weren’t presented in short, infectious bursts.
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With tracks that bear titles like “Spiderfighter” and “Doughnut for a Snowman” — two songs that happen to contain some of the album’s most memorable melodies — and most songs clocking in at less than a minute long, Let’s Go Eat the Factory might seem like a perfect album for your weird little brother who has ADHD. But the album’s appeal is much more broad than that.
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Let’s Go Eat the Factory is a standout album from a band whose discography is longer than the ingredients list on a box of Twinkies.
