Guided By Voices
Glad Girls
Good Morning!
Today we’re listening to “Glad Girls” by Guided By Voices
In one of my year-end issues, I joked that if we go more than six months without a GBV release, something must be horribly wrong.
I was only half kidding.
The band's prolific output- or Robert Pollard's- is no secret. An entire media empire could be built by simply dissecting each record in order.
Indeed, if you want a podcast that goes through most of the band's catalog—it ended in 2020, so it's missing, like, 13-14 records— you can start here.
The GBV discography is lengthy, but there's no shortage of twists and turns along the way. That's good for variety- and if you are planning a GBV media empire, it will mean no lack of flamethrower takes about each song/release.
In 2001, the phrase hot take didn't exist yet, but music opinion sure did. And views regarding Isolation Drills were generally positive. If anything, it's a consistent record.
That's not meant as a backhanded compliment. GBV can be varied, but sometimes squishing every style onto one record is regressive. With this release, we had a solid long player that did well to keep Pollard from bouncing around too much like a sonic superball.
Helping rein that in was this record's lineup-specifically ex-Breeders drummer Jim MacPherson. The rhythm section often finds a way to get lost on these records, but this time is different.
To be clear, this is still a guitar-driven poppy track, the treble is set to 11, and the vocals are tailor-made to sing along with in the car.
For my money, this is the poppiest track Pollard ever came up with.
And that's my hot take.
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If he recognizes the quixotic nature of the endeavor, coming at a time when the guitar-based pop-rock at which he excels has largely fallen out of fashion, his music never reveals it. Here's hoping he never wakes up from the delusion. After getting off to a tentative start with Under The Bushes Under The Stars and Mag Earwhig!, the new-sound GBV hit its stride with 1999's Do The Collapse. Or so it seemed at the time. The overreaching chunk-rock of Isolation Drills outdoes it while exemplifying everything that makes Pollard's progress so fascinating.
Click here to read the rest of the record review.
Listen:
“Glad Girls” by Guided By Voices | Isolation Drills, 2001
Click the record to listen on the platform of your choice.
As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts on this track!
Thanks for being here,
Kevin—
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Love this song and this band! As much as GBV is a blast from the past, they still find their way into daily listening. I suppose it stands to reason, considering how prolific they are.
Fantastic track. One of the greatest.