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...

  Introduction Reactions to my previous post about Do The Collapse were interesting: a lot of agreement with my take on the album, but also a few who rate it more highly than I did. In addition, several people pointed me in the direction of apparently far superior demo versions - which I will get to in due course; but for the moment I am firmly locked onto a 'doing the studio albums with no tangential distractions' course. Anyway, moving on... Despite my well-established level of ignorance, I am aware that Isolation Drills is a generally well-regarded album. And it didn't disappoint. The Album A lot of leg rubbing 'Hits the ground running' is a bit of a lazy cliché, but opener 'Fair Touching' is an undoubted cracker for which that clich é  is entirely appropriate. An infectious, REM-ish gallop, it's bouncy and exuberant but also tautly focused with a hint of melancholy. It's one of those songs that you can't help but fall in love with: it wel...

  Introduction First thing to note: after Under The Bushes largely eschewed the array of shorter, experimental interludes that had (mostly to great effect) populated the preceeding albums;  Tonics & Twisted Chasers had almost entirely reversed that trend;  Mag Earwhig! sat somewhere between the two approaches. Here, we seem to be back in Under The Bushes territory, with 16 songs that are of generally conventional structure, and almost all in the roughly two to four minute bracket. Secondly, I noted that the production on Under The Bushes sounded 'way more expensive and conventional than any of the earlier albums.' This is again true with Do The Collapse . Even more so, in fact: there's a very professional sheen to the whole thing; it sounds like it had a lot of time and money spent on it. The Album Complicated That's not to say that production quality is proxy for how good the album is - either way. It is true that the lo-fi aesthetic of Bee Thousand and A...

         Introduction A notable album in my personal GBV journey, given that it was the first that I listened to seriously in its entirety once my head had been turned (see the introduction ). With The Fall, it's often said that most fan's favourite album is the one that served as their introduction to the group; whilst Mag Earwhig! is not my favourite GBV LP, I think I will always think of it affectionately as my gateway...  The Album Phenomenal stunt kids ...and on that note, I should start with the song that finally kicked me into gear, GBV-wise. Thanks to the enthusiastic endorsement of  Paddy Considine , it was 'Not Behind the Fighter Jet' that convinced me that I really  should give the band another, proper go. Twenty albums in, and it remains my favourite GBV song. In many ways, it doesn't do anything especially remarkable. The casual listener might find its driving arpeggio-led verse and rousing chorus to be admirably well constructed but...

        Introduction I wasn't entirely sure whether I should even include this one in the list of 'proper' studio albums. Back when I was listening to GBV via the 'big playlist on shuffle' (passim), when tracks from Tonics  cropped up, they gave me the impression that it was a compilation of out-takes, demos, etc.  à la Suitcase , or something like Dead Letter Office  (more on which below). However, given that the Wikipedia entry describes it as ' a standalone album... initially released as a 19-track limited-edition fanclub-only vinyl LP in 1996', and that I've picked up via the GBV Facebook group that many consider it a 'proper' LP, I've decided to include it. I'm sure you have your opinions as to whether that's the correct decision... The Album Breakfast is the plan I have previously noted that one of my initial difficulties in getting into the GBV back catalogue was the prevalence of very short songs that, frustratingly, didn...