Alien Lanes
AMG AllMusic Guide: Pop Albums:
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Alien Lanes
- Artist: Guided By Voices
- Rating:
- Release Date: 1995
- Total Time: 41:15
- Type: Lyrics are included with the album
- Genre: Rock
Review
It's surprising what a difference it makes when a musician knows someone will actually be hearing his work. After 1994's charmingly sloppy Bee Thousand gained Guided By Voices a nationwide cult following (instead of the local cult following they were accustomed to), 1995's Alien Lanes found Robert Pollard and his partners in hard pop cleaning up their act a bit. For the most part, Alien Lanes isn't radically different from Bee Thousand -- it was primarily recorded on a four-track cassette machine (and sounds like it), and Guided By Voices was still a garage band with more in the way of inspiration than chops. But the musicians have put a bit more care and focus into their performance on this set; the playing is tighter and sharper, and the band plays toward their strengths, pushing their occasional sloppiness into a harder, more rock-oriented direction. And if Pollard and Tobin Sprout were still obsessed with tiny fragments of pop song wonderment, they also rounded up a more consistent collection of them; there aren't quite as many obvious masterpieces as on Bee Thousand, but also fewer obvious mistakes, and the sequencing gives the album a more consistent flow than before. Pollard also made genuine inroads into more lyrically cognizant material (though don't fret, "Auditorium" and "Blimps Go 90" are as cryptic as ever), and "Watch Me Jumpstart," "Striped White Jets," and "Motor Away" are simply superb pop/rock songs. (Sprout also gets a few shining moments on "A Good Flying Bird" and "Straw Dogs.") Both Bee Thousand and Alien Lanes sound like they were made by a band of inspired amateurs with great ideas; the difference is that Alien Lanes suggests that Guided By Voices wanted to prove that they could turn pro some day. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi| Alien Landscapes (2003 Album by Milton Kerr) | |
| Alien Love Secrets (1995 Album by Steve Vai) |
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Alien Lanes
Wikipedia on Answers.com:
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Alien Lanes
| Alien Lanes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by Guided by Voices | ||||
| Released | April 4, 1995[1] | |||
| Recorded | 1995 | |||
| Genre | Indie rock | |||
| Length | 41:00 | |||
| Label | Matador | |||
| Producer | Mr. Japan at Collider X-L | |||
| Guided by Voices chronology | ||||
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Alien Lanes is a 1995 album by lo-fi band Guided by Voices, their eighth full length album.
Pitchfork Media included Alien Lanes in their 'Top 100 Albums of the 90s' polls, at No. 27.[2] Magnet named it the best album of 1995.[3]
The album was GBV's first release with Matador Records. According to James Greer's book Guided by Voices: A Brief History: Twenty-One Years of Hunting Accidents in the Forests of Rock and Roll the advance for the record was close to a hundred thousand dollars, one of the more expensive deals in Matador's history. In contrast to the lucrative deal, Greer mentions that "The cost for recording Alien Lanes, if you leave out the beer, was about ten dollars."
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Contents
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Track listing
All songs written by Robert Pollard unless otherwise noted.
- "A Salty Salute" (R. Pollard, Tobin Sprout) – 1:29
- "Evil Speakers" – :58
- "Watch Me Jumpstart" – 2:24
- "They're Not Witches" (Greg Demos, Jim Pollard, R. Pollard) – :51
- "As We Go Up, We Go Down" – 1:37
- "(I Wanna Be a) Dumbcharger" – 1:13
- "Game of Pricks" – 1:33
- "The Ugly Vision" – 1:34
- "A Good Flying Bird" (Sprout) – 1:07
- "Cigarette Tricks" (Demos, J. Pollard, R. Pollard, Sprout) – :18
- "Pimple Zoo" – :42
- "Big Chief Chinese Restaurant" (J. Pollard, R. Pollard) – :56
- "Closer You Are" – 1:56
- "Auditorium" (R. Pollard, Sprout) – 1:02
- "Motor Away" (R. Pollard, Sprout) – 2:06
- "Hit" – :23
- "My Valuable Hunting Knife" – 2:00
- "Gold Hick" – :30
- "King and Caroline" (R. Pollard, Sprout) – 1:36
- "Striped White Jets" – 2:15
- "Ex-Supermodel" (R. Pollard, Sprout) – 1:06
- "Blimps Go 90" – 1:40
- "Strawdogs" (Sprout) – 1:17
- "Chicken Blows" – 2:21
- "Little Whirl" (Sprout) – 1:46
- "My Son Cool" – 1:41
- "Always Crush Me" – 1:44
- "Alright" – 2:56
Reception
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |    [4] |
| Robert Christgau |  [5] |
| Rolling Stone | [6] |
Mark Deming of Allmusic feels the record is similar to Bee Thousand, though without "as many obvious masterpieces" and "fewer obvious mistakes".[7] Matt Diehl in a 1995 review in Rolling Stone described the album's music as "hooky rock that infuses songwriting smarts and a love of melody with a sometimes spiky, sometimes whimsical sense of experimentation".[8]
Cover versions
Tracks from the album have been covered by various artists since its release. These include:
- "Game of Pricks", covered by American pop punk bands Magnapop from the German version of their album Mouthfeel and Jimmy Eat World released on the deluxe edition of Bleed American. "Game of Pricks" was also covered by British post-Grunge band, My Vitriol. Musician Owen Pallett covered "Game of Pricks" on A.V Club Undercover 2011.
- "My Valuable Hunting Knife" was covered by Motion City Soundtrack. The song was also covered by Planningtorock as a bonus track on her album W.
- Opener "A Salty Salute" was covered by New York City band The Strokes.
References
- ^ Alien Lanes at the Guided by Voices database
- ^ "Top 100 Albums of the 1990s". Pitchfork. http://pitchfork.com/features/staff-lists/5923-top-100-albums-of-the-1990s/8/. Retrieved July 6, 2009.
- ^ "Acclaimed Music". Acclaimed Music. http://acclaimedmusic.net/. Retrieved December 6, 2011.
- ^ http://www.allmusic.com/album/r212244
- ^ "CG: Guided by Voices". Robert Christgau. http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?name=Guided+by+Voices. Retrieved December 6, 2011.
- ^ "Internet Archive Wayback Machine". Web.archive.org. April 21, 2009. http://web.archive.org/web/20090421002248/http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/guidedbyvoices/albums/album/199561/review/5946481/alien_lanes. Retrieved December 6, 2011.
- ^ Mark Deming (2011 [last update]). "Alien Lanes – Guided by Voices | AllMusic". allmusic.com. http://www.allmusic.com/album/alien-lanes-r212244/review. Retrieved June 25, 2011.
- ^ Matt Diehl. "Guided By Voices: Alien Lanes : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone". Archived from the original on April 21, 2009. http://web.archive.org/web/20090421002248/http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/guidedbyvoices/albums/album/199561/review/5946481/alien_lanes. Retrieved June 25, 2011.
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(1994 Album by Guided by Voices/The Grifters)
Always Crush Me
(1994 Album by Guided by Voices/Belreve)
Under the Bushes Under the Stars
(1996 Album by Guided by Voices)
Motor Away
(1995 Album by Guided by Voices)
Not in My Airforce
(1996 Album by Robert Pollard)
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