Guided By Voices "Let's Go Eat The Factory"

 Released 12/20/2011

GBV are back after 8 years and it's hard to imagine that "Bee Thousand" and (personal fave) "Alien Lanes" were from 1994-5.  With "Let's Go Eat The Factory" it's as if they never left.  Titular leader Robert Pollard, after a less than distinguished solo career, reassembled many of the past members in 2010 and this is the result.  Twenty one songs ranging from under a minute to almost exactly 4 minutes (the average is probably right around 2 minutes).  You cover a lot of ground here in styles and the hit rate for memorable tunes is up there.  Many times you wish they would have fleshed out some of the tunes, some are just right and others...well at least they are short.  One thing though...they are all fun and that's something this group seems to understand in spades.  Worth checking out along with much of their back catalogue if you're not familiar.  A true cult band.

NOTE: Six months after the above release, GBV released another new album consisting of 21 new songs along a similar vein.  That seems a bit soon for me and listening shows this to be the case.  The ratio of songs you'd want to hear again on "Class Clown Spots a UFO" is a lot lower than that on "Let's Go Eat The Factory" by quite a bit.  As in the past they seem to be spreading themselves a bit thin.  Then again that's possibly what their true fans are looking for: Quantity versus Quality to arrive at those favorite tracks.  Lowers the standard for me.