First two tracks from Sandbox reminds me of Cheap Trick? That this followed Devil Between My Toes seems really strange. I definitely agree with the posts above about production being stuck in a middle ground and just not being great. Still - if this is one of the low points thatās kind of a good sign.
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Yeah they were huge fans of cheap trick and toured with them in the 90s iirc from the latest book.
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Sandbox score time
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Tracks (up to 3)
- Lips of Steel
- A Visit to the Creep Doctor
- Everyday
- Barricade
- Get to Know the Ropes
- Canāt Stop
- The Drinking Jim Crow
- Trap Soul Door
- Common Rebels
- Long Distance Man
- I Certainly Hope Not
- Adverse Wind
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I hadnāt appreciated their European touring was such a rare event. I caught them at Leeds Festival in 2002.
Iād heard Bob used to be a teacher and it cracked me up that he came onstage with a definite air of āright class, weāve got a lot to get through today.ā
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Mum thoughts
Listening to Devil between my toes, think the early tracks do sound like REM, but didnāt get that from the first album
Love the guitar on Hey hey spaceman
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Brutal numbers for Sandbox so far, yikes 
Just being judged against how good we know they can be!
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Got my mental order wrong and thought weād got into the 90s. Instead we have Self-Inflicted Aerial Nostalgia
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Realised I read this as aural and not aerial for years. That is my only comment thus far. Off this week so may try and catch up if I get a minute
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Hadnāt realised that the whole run of Devil to Propellor was mostly recorded in the same place - 8-track studio by a guy called Steve Wilbur
Some tracks here and there are obviously recorded differently, but still surprises me the wild variations in quality/volume/clarity across those albums even with that consistent recording studio
Been looking forward to revisiting this one, itās been a while since I last heard it 
Here are the writeups for Self-Inflicted Ariel Nostalgia at the An Earful 'O Wax and The Constant Bleeder fanblogs.
I think that studio might be where Bob gained his āFading Captainā nickname from originally i.e. he was the only one able to master the rickety studio technology to properly fade out the end of some of the songs where required.
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Explains a lot about fidelity issues then
Comments on assorted songs from Self-Inflicted Aerial Nostalgia:
The Future Is In Eggs: love the drums & ominous feel at the start of this. Mumbled vocals from Bob, he really doesnāt care for eggs very much! I like the song, but it feels like an odd choice to kick off the album? But itās nice to be back in Weirdsville.
Paper Girl: hahaha this just randomly starts off with a distorted blast of one of the Devil instrumentals, wtf? And then even more randomly morphs into a pretty acoustic ditty. āā¦the paper girlās gonna blow awayā, very sweet.
Navigating Flood Regions: yeah this is fucking great, a clear album highlight. Bob obviously loved this one because he resurrected it during the farewell tour in 2004. Great riff running all the way through the song, and very Lennon-ish catchy vocals too. The best tune from the pre-Propeller era?
Chief Barrel Belly: more Lennon vocals, but a bit unhinged this time. The guitars sound a bit grungy on this. A very powerful, propulsive song. Another highlight for me.
Dying To Try This: a lo-fi acoustic interlude, nice but nothing special. Another song where it sounds like Bob is trying to imitate somebody else vocally, but I canāt work out who?
Liarās Tale: really beautiful tremolo guitar on this one, plus gorgeous longing vocals from Bob, ālet me tell you a story, about the way she wasā. Quite a unique-sounding song in the GBV cannon, just lovely really.
Gonna have some lunch, then come back with my overall thoughts on the album a bit later
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Current lineup played it for a while as well. Had sadly dropped it by the time they came to London.
Think theyāve played Liars Tale in their current incarnation as well
Good ones start soon!
Funny that this one comes before Same Place, as I think itās more coherent and consistent overall again. Theyāre jumping all over the place over these first 4 main albums
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Think the best songs on this album are really great, but itās quite up and down/patchy. Find this one less consistent than Devil which others might disagree with. Thereās nothing bad on here but a few tracks are a little bit boring, whereas I find the weird instrumentals on Devil quite atmospheric and interesting. Better than Sandbox though definitely.
Best songs: Navigating Flood Regions, Trampoline, Radio Show
The GBV podcast that guy did where he reviewed every album was called Self Inflicted Aural Nostalgia which was a very clever name
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