Itās a shame they didnāt start playing Raincloud live again until after London
A few tracks Iām not bothered about as it goes on. But the best tracks are very strong, nice (temporary) swansong.
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Anyway
Factory hottake - not that bothered about Doughnut for a Snowman or The Unsinkable Fats Domino which get a lot more attention than the better tracks because they were singles (both fine though)
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I have Factory on digital but I think Iāve only listened to it once when my GBV knowledge was pretty slight and it left me pretty cold.
So Iāve just listened to it again and it still doesnāt really grab me like the last few albums have. It contains a couple of decent tunes and a couple of right stinkers. Unfortunately the better tracks are pretty forgettable. Ah well.
Also I have to say, possibly the worst artwork of any GBV album. 
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Factory!
OK, yeah, the big comeback! And what a curious beast. Fairly sure (like a few itt) I was aware of what Bob was up to enough to be interested at the time, and although not blown away by this album, it was enough to properly pique my interest in this revival in the band being more than just a mortgage payoff cash-grab type thing. I mean, although it has a scrappy lofi charm, this is certainly not a band treading old ground imo.
Overall, and somewhat strangely, this album has an ominous downbeat vibe. Like, arenāt you guys happy to be back?! Laundry and Lasers is a sinister opener, with that drone and muffled vocal, all heavy and fuzzy. This is different. Pretty cool though. The Head is great. Minimal coolness with a great vocal and blasts of organ before Doughnutā¦ which is a kind of insipid pop tune - but not too bad. And its breeziness is welcome. Then we have Tobeās first offering, which is murky and uncompromising until the lovely piano outro. Still, itās a far cry from the Mag Earwhig to Half Smiles era records.
Hang Mr Kite is a different vibe with the instrumentation, but again kind of downbeat. God Loves Us is probably better in theory then execution. But The Unsinkable Fats Domino is pretty greatā¦ by this point Iām thinking the record isnāt bad but would appreciate some editing I guess. Who Invented The Sun is pretty nothingy. So is The Big Hatā¦ And so is Imperial Racehorsing. But itās the lyrics that lets these ones down more than their brevity in my opinion - and actually the musical ideas going on on Side 1 as a whole are pretty diverse - from the fuzziness, to the Beatlesesque strings, to the trumpets - thatās something that can be said for it. I quite like how jarring and patchwork it is - but the closest precedent is probably Vampire On Titus.
Side 2 kicks of with How I Met My Mother which is a nice title but thatās about it. Waves has some heft and should be the opener. Again, itās murky as hell, but has a vibe which is pretty cool. My Europa is quite lovely - lovely vocals and bizarre guitar backing that sounds like itās a recorded and then rerecorded MP3. Chocolate Boy is nice, again. Some lovely strings and welcome breeziness if ultimately not that memorable. The tone changes again with the experimental spoken word (found sound?) The Things They Never Need before a more standard rocker Either Nelson which has some pointless Fallesque piano nonsense over the top.
The Fallness continues with Cyclone Utilities which really should be a Circus Devils tune. Again some of the sonics here are pretty interesting even if the tune isnāt all that. Tobe comes in again, with some jarring ernestness and heartstring tugging in Old Bones. Itās, again, quite lovely. Almost like something on Tom Waitsā Bawlers. And arguably should be the album closer. Go Rolling Home and The Room Taking Shape are both a bit pointless. They maybe couldāve kept one. We Wonāt Apologize isā¦ OK.
Conclusion: Itās not as bad as the critics make out. I donāt care that it lacks cohesion and kind of sounds like several albums in one. And yes, they couldāve dropped a few tunes from it. But itās uncompromising and quite bold for that. Like, āhey weāre back in the basement doing this shit again, feel free to ignore it or whatever, weāve already written enough hits anyway!ā Hell, they were going to follow it up with two pretty excellent albums within the year. They were just getting started. (Again!)
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Yeah, I have the gatefold LP and actually the inner with the lyrics and the back are quite tasteful. Lovely matte finish too! But that front cover is awful.
Eesh, that was nearly 5 years ago!
unsorted thoughts - I really like the run of old bones/go rolling home/the room taking shape. Kinda morose and bit weird and fucked up. Much more into that than half-hearted powerpop. - Unsinkable fats domino is one of the few times where I want a gbv song to do one more thing than it actually does. (edit: I do think itās good though) - agree with everyone who says this has a good atmosphere but isnāt the best for ātunesā. - I like the guitar solos on this
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will echo pretty much all of this - the only thing I can remember a few days on is the terrible artwork 
not as bad as some of the earlier comments here would have me believe, but not as good as anything in the initial run
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Update: this album still refuses to click for me 
Sorry, everyone!
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Absolutely agree with both of these points.
This record is my biggest surprise of the listening club so far. I really love it. Iām not too familiar with the post reformation records (only came to GBV after that), and have developed this fear theyād be half-arsed retreads or lacking inspiration and ideas along the lines of late late Fall efforts. But no, I think itās fucking marvellous. The tunes lack that uncanny quality of the classic run, but for the first time in a number of records, Iāve no idea where theyāre going next or where theyāre coming from. Itās nice to hear them being abrasive again, too.
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tbf (blurring as talking about forthcoming recs) the run from English Little League to Please Be Honest is the closest they get to that and I think thatās why it fizzled out. That said, there are still some cracking singles in there imo: Planet Score and Bad Love Is Easy To Do
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Really looking forward to revisiting the next two albums, I remember them both being excellent.
Updated personal leaderboard:
- Bee Thousand
- Under The Bushes Under The Stars
- Propeller
- Alien Lanes
- Isolation Drills
- Universal Truths & Cycles
- Do The Collapse
- Vampire on Titus
- Mag Earwhig!
- Half Smiles of the Decomposed
- Earthquake Glue
- Self Inflicted Aerial Nostalgia
- Same Place the Fly Got Smashed
- Devil Between My Toes
- Letās Go Eat The Factory
- Forever Since Breakfast
- Sandbox
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Just had a random flashback to the Beforetimes i.e. early Jan 2020.
When I first discovered GBV I was initially just listening to random songs from random albums (and loving pretty much everything I was hearing), and I have a vivid memory of one of the earliest songs being āLaundry & Lasersā - I clearly remember thinking that the artwork accompanying this fan upload of the track perfectly matched the brooding, menacing vibe of the song itself:
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Gave it another listen today
Yeah, messy good fun that as I said makes me think of the first 4-5 albums rather than anything else in their discography. Disjointed and odd, but with enough highs to make it worthwhile and tbh the lows arenāt as bad as some of those early albums. And just has energy that clearly grabbed a bit of a new audience in the way Iām not sure many of the reunion albums since will have done. Would maybe cut 3-4 songs which I think would help it a lot, but theyāre usually weird enough to be entertaining still
Some pure GBV pop bangers (Waves, Fats Domino) some gorgeous sweet ballads (I adore Snowman, Chocolate Boy), a bunch of fun psychy oddness, and Tobin at the heaviest heās ever been - Spiderfighter feels like him writing a Bob track in the best way, and God Loves Us just kicks ass. Probably my fav song on here
Think itāll end up with a 7 like most of the early since I actually enjoy it as a whole album more, though Devil or VoT obviously have more peak brilliant songs
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polling for LGETF
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
0
voters
- Laundry & Lasers
- The Head
- Doughnut For A Snowman
- Spiderfighter
- Hang Mr. Kite
- God Loves Us
- The Unsinkable Fats Domino
- Who Invented The Sun
- The Big Hat And Toy Show
- Imperial Racehorsing
- How I Met My Mother
- Waves
- My Europa
- Chocolate Boy
- The Things That Never Need
- Either Nelson
- Cyclone Utilities (Remember Your Birthday)
- Old Bones
- Go Rolling Home
- The Room Taking Shape
- We Wonāt Apologize For The Human Race
0
voters
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no idea how weāll do Class Clown though as it doesnāt seem to be streaming anywhere - not even ripped to YT 
So weird how the three singles are on streaming services, but not the rest of the album.
I think most of it is there on YT however, albeit just as individual songs rather than as a full album/playlist.
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Can we skip it then?
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Laundry and Lasers and Waves were a given, was torn between The Head, God Loves Us and Hang Mr Kite for third until I remembered Spiderfighter exists
Surprised We Wonāt Apologise For The Human Race hasnāt got any votes yet as it always sounds like one of the least messy, more accomplished tracks on there that has more in common with where they went next