The Hall of Fantastically Fine Things

   Introduction As I've mentioned several times previously, my listening habits re GBV have, over the last few months, involved listening to both individual albums and sequential 'chunks' of the back catalogue (as far as English Little League ). Doing this, some albums (including, inevitably, Bee Thousand and Alien Lanes ) immediately stood out as strong pieces of work. Others ( Vampire On Titus springs to mind) took a little work to get into.  Earthquake Glue  was not one of those that immediately leapt out at me. However, although it isn't perhaps absolutely top drawer, it's been a very rewarding experience to have it on heavy rotation over the last couple of weeks. The Album You can ride on my shoulders As has been the case with the last three albums (as well as several others), Earthquake Glue  hits the ground running with a strong opener. 'My Kind of Soldier' has a driving yet calm intensity, the vocal floating languidly over a bed of urgent strummi...

  Introduction After the unsteady dip of Do The Collapse , Isolation Drills felt like a breath of fresh air. Would Universal Truths And Cycles continue the upward trajectory? Well, on my listening journey so far (everything up to English Little League ) it was an album that had come across as solidly strong, if perhaps a little lacking in breath-taking highlights. So I was interested to see if a detailed perusal would elevate it beyond that... The Album Gumming the fun tunnel Album opener 'Wire Greyhounds' sees me revisiting the 'hits the ground running' cliché, as it's an admirable burst of concise, focused, melodic energy. There's an echo of the mid-90s in its brutally truncated brevity, but we're still in crisp, punchy production territory. Lyrically, it has an amusingly self-reverential air, the enigmatic ' Breath woman captures a ghost / b lurring sweat heads eat noodlestuff' being followed by an instruction to 's it up and beg f or slive...