The Hall of Fantastically Fine Things

       Introduction One of the things that even the casual listener knows about GBV is their reputation for being prolific, and here - a mere 21 months after the release of Bee Thousand - we have the third LP in a row to boast 20+ songs. Thus far, this fecundity has not been to the detriment of the quality. By my (highly scientific, obviously) rating system, more than 80% of the 48 tracks on Bee Thousand and Alien Lanes were at least an 8/10, and nearly half 9/10 or better. As a result, 41 of them reside on my ever-expanding 'GBV Favourites' playlist. So how well will  Under The Bushes... measure up to its two illustrious predecessors...? The Album A crate of secrets The album certainly hits the ground running. 'Man Called Aerodynamics' is a heady, thunderous whirl with a touch of Hüsker Dü about its aggressive riff. Opening line, 'Find deep within your memory coat a  cricket bag you ate from' and references to 'the ant god' and 'scary magnets...

      Introduction Working my way through the GBV back catalogue has, obviously, been a great pleasure, but it brings its challenges from a blogging/reviewing perspective. The albums I've covered so far have been short on duration (lasting, on average, not much more than half an hour) - but whilst this makes 'on-a-loop' listening less time-consuming, this is more than counter-balanced by the sheer volume of songs. For comparison, I've written about 106 GBV songs so far; at the same stage with The Fall, I'd only covered 64 album tracks.  And now, we have an album that does, for the first time, make it past the 40-minute mark (although only by 75 seconds) but contains 28 (!) songs... The Album The club is open I've mentioned in several previous posts that in my pre-conversion 'everything on shuffle' days, many of the more concise tracks left me frustrated. They seemed too fragmentary, unfinished, when taken out of context. I don't want to harp on about...