As myyada said itās largely down to Pollardās voice on the record. It absolutely has some of my favourite stuff on there, but itās not entirely surprising to me he āendedā GBV soon after.
He must have been completely exhausted after the previous decade
Love āIāll Replace You With Machinesā, even (especially?) the guy trying to unblock a toilet in the background
Worth remembering the glut of other stuff he was putting out around this time as well i.e. multiple solo records, collabs, plus heād just started up the Circus Devils project. No idea where he found all the energy (or inspiration).
Hi allā¦ Iāve launched my GBV music league if anyone wants to get involved:
https://app.musicleague.com/l/c39fc65027454ec3a06fb30164abc236/
Hope everything works out! See you back when you can make it
Going to dig my CDs of this run out at my parentsā gaff at the weekend. Might even get shitfaced in my old room there and listen to them all in a row.
This post paid for by PROF$.
hope everyone had time to listen to EG and get ready to VOTE
Best of Jill Hives is one of their all timers, the way Bob writes about depression can really cut like a knife
so on relisten i like his a little less than I thought I did. Donāt think itās actually any worse, but Iāve realised I like the albums around it (especially UT&C) more than I thought I did, so EG doesnāt stand out as much
that said, still just really enjoy the poppy-prog thing theyāre going for here and some of the production flourishes with the strings and synths popping up - but more organically than on DTC. Really consistent, no bad tracks, some amazing instrumental sections and Bob pens a handful of pop beauties. My Kind of Soldier and Best of Jill Hives are chiming brilliance, and Useless Inventions gets overlooked by as I-C said itās sort of a standout anthem. The bombast of Replace You With Machines is great fun, and then the whole last third is some of my fav stuff, big sweeping epic songs mixed in with weird little tempo changes and memorable lyrics. Main Street Wizards is in contention for most underrated GBV song ever, and Secret Star is as grandiose as anything they managed before or since - would be nearly as good of a āfinal GBVā song as Huffman was
a very good 8, probably still challenging for my top 5
Just never can get into this one. My introduction to GBV was Letās Go Eat The Factoryā¦I liked that and Class clown , so next step was to listen to the classics , so picked.up B1000 and Alien Lanes. Loves both those too. So then when looking where to go next , I liked the name and cover of Earthquake Glue. It was the first GBV album I was disappointed with.
So gave it another go this week , hoping maybe it was just because I listened to it straight after those other great albums, but now still havenāt really like warmed to it. Just doesnāt have the hooks for me and I donāt care for the Psych P as much as Bobās other 3.
Someone above mentioned how the current lines ups albums seem to use this as a template , which is true and maybe why I havenāt been a big fan of the recent stuff either.
A lot of shite on the horizon
time to head into the actual honestly final act of GBV with HALF SMILES OF THE DECOMPOSED
said this for about 5 albums, but I think this might actually be their best opening track of all
āOver the Neptuneā¦ā just pips it for me, but itās a classic for sure
Yeah, thatās what I settled on.
YAS M8!
I guess Neptune just jumps straight into the ābest song listā so I tend to discount it from ābest openersā cos brains are smart 
A MIRACLE CURE FOR MY SORROWS
Every beam I choose is shining alone on you is the most romantic lyric of all time donāt @ me
