Guided By Voices ( http://www.gbv.com/ )
Isolation Drills
TVT Records
Rating: 4 Flaming Goat Heads
Long hailed for their lo-fi approach to life, Isolation Drills sounds like the record Guided By Voices should have made at least two or three times by now. We all knew they had this in them, the hooks have always been there, Robert Pollard's vocals still have that rare ability not to completely annoy, but for the longest time they stubbornly clung to the DIY ethic better left to punk rockers. Bottom line, even good rock bands need outside help to sound their best. Finally, with 1999's Do The Collapse, they gave in and hired producer extraordinaire Ric Ocasek, surrendering to the powers of studio polish. That record was good, this one is better. From the get, "Fair Touching" emerges as an instant GBV classic. GBV guitarist Doug Gillard is vastly underrated and has a distinct sense of timing that hasn't dulled over the years. It is just nice to finally be able to hear everything that is going on. Not that they have completely abandoned that four-track dirty sound - "Frostman" sounds like it's just Pollard, Gillard, one mic and a bottle of Wild Turkey, and "How's My Drinking" is one of those vodka-drenched torch songs we have come to expect. Aside from that, the record sounds big, particularly "The Enemy," a track that makes you do whatever you're doing twice as fast. While not quite as significant as Dylan going electric, GBV's willingness to embrace this particular philosophy should emerge as a major moment in the world of indie-rock. Whether this leads to their ultimate downfall, we shall see.-Andrew Watson
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