Soon, a review of “Let’s Go Eat The Factory”, but first a brief history lesson, just in case you don’t know the story so far. Guided By Voices haven’t released an album in 8 years. Some would probably call it 16 years, since it was in 1996 that Robert Pollard sacked and replaced the rest of the band with an all new line up. That iteration of GBV released some mighty fine albums in their time – I’m thinking “Isolation Drills” and “Earthquake Glue” – and Pollard has made his fair share of strong records in post-GBV collaborations, including one I quite liked last year, but none have quite scratched the same itch as the early 90s GBV did. The hope is that “Let’s Go Eat The Factory”, which sees the classic GBV line up back in the studio after a reunion tour, can capture some of that pre-96 magic.
You don’t have to spend a lot of time with the album to realise that that’s its goal. A glance at the sleeve reveals twenty-one tracks, only three of which break the three minute mark, while opening track “Laundry And Lasers”, which sounds like it was recorded with a walkie talkie, couldn’t do more to signpost a return to a sloppy, lo-fi aesthetic. These tracks will come on scratchy and fast, just like old times.
And some of them will be no good, just like old times. GBV have always tread a fine line between bite-sized gems and underdeveloped filler, and unfortunately there’s a little too much of the latter here. Some tracks, like the overdramatic “Hang Mr. Kite”, actively miss the mark. Many others are simply forgettable, especially on the Pollard-dominated second half of the album, the exception being sinister closer “We Won’t Apologise for The Human Race”.
The first half of the album is more balanced in the songwriting stakes and is all the better for it. Pollard and returning keyboardist and guitarist Tobin Sprout trade blows on a run of cracking [and crackling] pop tunes, starting with the silly-but-delightful “Doughnut For A Snowman” and ending with the dirty and bluesy “The Big Hat And Toy Show”, both Pollard numbers. It’s Sprout who steals the show though. With his serene voice ever fresh, he exhibits a childlike revelry on tracks like “God Loves Us”, “Who Invented The Sun” and the frankly joyous “Waves”, and that revelry suggests very good things to come from GBV if they can squeeze another few albums from this get together.
“Let’s Go Eat The Factory” is an uneven album for sure, but it should do just enough to sate GBV fans with a retro hankering, and if in future the whole band starts enjoying itself as much as Sprout clearly already is, well, we could be in for another bona fide classic.
