Speed up, slow down, go all around in the end.
Man, this is a brilliant album. It sounds like the 90s encapsulated. This album and it's melodies are like a gold mine that 90s pop mined, emulated, partially ripped off and riffed off of. I firmly believe if it weren't for:
a) The recording quality and
b) The strange song names and lyrics
That this would be one of the most popular albums of the 90s. It has the songwriting potential definitely. Tractor Rape Chain's chorus for the longest time bugged me, it sounded so much like some other popular song I heard in the 90s but I couldn't think of it. Now I'm pretty sure there was no song, and that it was just one of those magical hooks that is already ingrained in your bones, something you're already familiar with. Speed up, slow down, go all around, in the end.
Once again, pertaining to those two rules earlier, and along with a little bit of a song expansion, I believe The Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory could have been a hit. It has such a great melody and hook.
Hot Freaks, once again, great chorus and melody. It's classic ballsy rock that wants to break your ****ing nose.
Smothered in Hugs is a victim of recording quality I think. I feel this song could be a hit too. I want to note, that I'm not blaming Guided by Voices for this and these reasons I'm pointing out don't really detract from my liking of the album. I'm just pointing out the petty things that mainstream uses as excuses to shove aside great music.
Yours To Keep is once again, a sad and tender song and probably wouldn't have been a hit, but it if it was a bit longer, I would like it a lot more. But it's still great.
Echos Myron once again sounds so typically 90s. Why wasn't this a hit? This sounds exactly like a 90s hit, with the exception that it wasn't a hit.
I think Awful Bliss is a ****ing beautiful song. These guys are great at melody. It's some indescribable motion of the melody that Guided by Voices uses a lot, I can't really put it into words, it's something that is tenderly visceral, cutting to the core of you.
A Big Fan of the Pigpen is also a really great song. BOP BADDA BOP BAH BOP DOW DOW! The end part is great.
Ester's Day is absolutely beautiful. I really can't describe it, it just is. It goes from like 30 seconds of a really cool part, then acoustic brilliance. Down and out...
I Am A Scientist is one of the most fully formed songs on the album and if the recording quality were better, like I've repetitively been stressing, it would have been a hit. Maybe I'm going crazy, maybe it wouldn't have been a hit, but I firmly believe it could have.
Peep-Hole is a really good song. Brief, but nice. You're Not An Airplane is one of the best ending songs I've ever heard on an album. Short and brief, concise and beautiful.
Bee Thousand is brimming with a major songwriting talent, one of the real signatures of an era where technicality took a back seat to emotional QUALITY SONGWRITING. This is one of my favorite albums ever, without a doubt.
10/10