Review: Guided By Voices - Let’s Go Eat the Factory

Spotify

On Lets Go Eat the Factory, Guided By Voices are definitely back. By this I mean that they’ve reverted back to the fuzz of the 90s everyone loved them for in the first place. It’s interesting that in their first release since 2004’s Half Smiles of the Decomposed, a huge resurgence of a 90s sound has occurred in the indie music scene Robert Pollard & Co. influenced. It’s great to see that so many young bands which are influenced by GBV are seemingly in turn influencing the band to go back to their own roots. Playing it safe when you’re a band that’s been around as long as they have could be considered boring, but in this case it’s good. Not a masterpiece, but a welcome return to the familiar.

As a return to form, Lets Go Eat the Factory recalls albums like Bee Thousand and Alien Lanes. Like these predecessors, it’s filled with great short bursts of music and mystifying lyrics. In other words, GBV at their best. However, two of my favorite songs on the album are the longer tracks, “We Won’t Apologize for the Human Race” and “Waves”. The former is probably one of the most adventurous songs on the album because of the major transitions in sound (both vocally and instrumentally). While “Waves” is a 21st century power pop gem. 

Possibly the most interesting thing about Lets Go Eat the Factory, though, is how easy it is to find the band’s influences. “Hang Mr. Kite” for example could have fit right next to The Beatles’ “Being For the Benefit of Mr. Kite”. At the same time, the guitar in “Spiderfighter” definitely has a Kinks vibe which drifts off into a lovely Beach Boys-esque ballad. Amidst the obviousness though, Guided By Voices still sound very much like what their greatest releases sound like. However, Lets Go Eat the Factory lacks some of the charm of Bee Thousand and Alien Lanes, both of those albums have a naive childlike wonder to them which Lets Go Eat the Factory seems to have given up on. There is no “Game of Pricks” or “I am A Scientist”, though “Chocolate Boy” comes awfully close. It’s proven difficult to decide what songs are genius and which fall short of it on a 21 track collection of short, surreal songs. Then again, that’s what we know (and love) Guided By Voices for. 

Final Score: 7.5/10 

Songs I Starred on Spotify:

• Doughnut for a Snowman
• Spiderfighter
• Hang Mr. Kite
• God Loves Us
• Waves
• My Europa
• Chocolate Boy
• Old Bones
• We Won’t Apologize for the Human Race

-Alex