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Guided By Voices
Big guitars, big drums…big production! Holy mackerel! What’s going on here? I thought Guided By Voices were supposed to be ‘low-fi’. The only song on this disk that remotely qualifies is "Frostman", and it’s such a toss-off that it barely has any relevance to the proceedings. The real action here lies in the bigness of it all. The production (done by Rob Schnapf – sorry, I don’t know who he is either) almost takes center stage on this disk, but is thankfully overridden by the typically engaging melodies of songwriter Robert Pollard. Normally, production like this would go almost unnoticed, but Guided By Voices is a band that has released albums consisting almost entirely of cassette recordings, so the change is certainly notable, if not a specific reason to celebrate. If nothing else, the crappy, ‘low-fi’ production of their past gave the band a unique identity that this record dismisses. Although Isolation Drills denies the band of one of its most definable characteristics, there is little real damage done, because what really matters is the songs, and Pollard has done a better than adequate job here, even surpassing some of his previous personal best. Full of hummable melodies and constructed from Pollard’s typically twisted lyrical manifestations, each song grabs at you, holding on until you succumb and start singing along, even if the imagery is bizarre.
More than most other GBV albums, most songs here have a distinct rhythmic footprint ("The Enemy", "Unspirited", "The Brides Have Hit Glass", "Privately"). This is mostly due to the exacting guitar work of Doug Gillard, whose presence is more responsible for the new, ‘improved’ GBV than any other single factor. This is easily the band’s most consistent album, which of course is usually a good thing, but GBV are capable of a broad array of soundscapes. They seem to reel themselves in here, sticking to more conventional methods, which can only be distracting if you’re an old fan. Veteran listeners will likely note that this collection of songs blends together in a much more homogenous manner than usual, and that is a mixed blessing. Most rock bands function exactly like this, treating uniformity as a quality rather than a hindrance, but GBV were a different animal. In the name of finding a mainstream audience, GBV embraces this theory here, with a defined band sound, full of harmonies and enhanced guitars. That makes this one of the band’s most accessible records, but it also could make it the album with the shortest shelf life, since the ‘modern’ production will likely be the very reason that it ages faster than their ‘low-fi’ stuff. Time will tell.
Grade: 
 
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