Yep nothing else until Jan 8th
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Listening to the next two albums early as my CDs of them are at my parentsā house
Didnāt do any of the Christmas listening woops, will probs chuck it in on my own time over the next weeks. Anyone else manage it?
Back into the action tomorrow anyway!
Update: I didnāt get to Tonics & Twisted Chasers in the end. All the endless end-of-year lists shamed me into belatedly catching up on a whole bunch of 2023 stuff instead.
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I suppose Iām jumping the gun a bit, but Iām having a great time reconnecting with Universal Truths and Cycles tonight 
Think I was originally a bit lukewarm on this one for some reason, lord only knows why.
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fire up the music machine, we go again - with UNIVERSAL TRUTHS AND CYCLES
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hmm yeah this is starting much better than I remember
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Well damn
At the very least this will be my āmost improvedā album from the original run, lots to enjoy in there when it seemed totally bland every previous time
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This was the second album I owned by them after Lets Go Eat the Factory, one of my local record shops had this and Earthquake Glue on CD for a fiver each, bought this first and went back for Earthquake Glue later. Always had a soft spot for it as a result and been surprised by some negativity Iāve seen about it.
Interesting after the longer songs of the last couple of albums theyāre back to the really scattershot 90s approach but all done more slickly than in the past. But the handful of longer songs on this one hit really hard, not sure if itās because they appear more sparingly or theyāre just really good, probably both.
But you can tell theyāve given up on the commercial ambitions of the last couple of albums, gone back to Matador and resumed just doing what they want.
Good album imo, probably my fav of this era. Best once since Mag Earwhig.
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and despite that in Back to the Lake and Everywhere with Helicopter they probably had two songs closer to āhitsā in energy than anything from the slicker albums
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Hot take: Back to the Lake is a bit overrated, itās a good song but far from the best on here imo so not sure why itās the only one they play live.
Everywhere with Helicopter is superb and they should play that instead.
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Skipped the last two as Iāve hated them every time Iāve heard them. On to UT&C and itās so much better already. āChristian Animation Torch Carriersā is fucking brilliant.
This post paid for by PROF$.
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If you donāt mind counting the pixels, here is a great performance of āEverywhere With Helicopterā from the The Late Late Show in 2002.
Bob looked fucking psyched in this clip!
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Lineup is given as:
Guided by Voices: Robert Pollard, Doug Gillard, Nate Farley, Tim Tobias and Jon McCann
Coming soon: Kevin March
So March must have joined between recording and release.
Christopher Slusarenko plays piano on Back to the Lake apparently, a couple of years before becoming their bass player (and then being a member of Boston Spaceships and The Takeovers)
The start of Todd Tobias producing everything Bob related for a while, although Circus Devils started in 2001 apparently.
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Think I slightly prefer the previous two albums, as this one drops off a bit towards the end. Still some amazing moments though, especially the finale of āChristian Animation Torch Carriersā
On a related note, does anyone know the story behind this song? seems to be from around this period but i couldnāt find it on any official releaseā¦
one of my all-time favourites, no idea how i came across it in the first place though!
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thatās great! one of the rare ones where Bob doesnāt really sound like himself, so gives the whole thing a different feel
the backing vocals in the second chorus are stunning
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They released this under a pseudonym on a compilation. Had to go and search to remember what and when.
It was one of those Red Hot compilations (like Dark Was The Night) and they released it under the name Freedom Cruise, and itās from 1995 apparently.
Great song though, definitely should have been on one of the 90s albums.
Think I discovered it during lockdown because I remember having to create a Twitch account to watch a comedy stream and making that my username.
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thatās a damn good lineup
might have to track down a cheap copy if one exists
Oh there does seem to be 2 different versions
This is the 90s Red Hot version:
gbvdb.com mentions a āRefraze versionā and just says itās on the Briefcase compilation from 2000
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Here are the writeups for Universal Truths and Cycles over at the Earful 'O Wax and Constant Bleeder fan blogs.
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