Not sure if Bob would quite get away with that cover image nowadays tbh
Noā¦ I mean, looking at it. Iām not sure what if anything is meant to be interpreted by it. I guess thatās why it doesnāt sit right as itās just an image of a Native American used in a throwaway way. It doesnāt relate to the content of the record in any way. The Welshpool Frillies artwork was a bit off too tbh.
Iām sure this came up as a topic of conversation elsewhere a while ago, perhaps the FB group or something like that. The general explanation was that Bob grew up watching all the cool Spaghetti Westerns of the 60ās and early 70ās, and had a bit of a fascination in Native Americans from that experience. Sounds plausible I suppose.
I doubt anybody batted an eyelid back in 2012, but yeah it does feel a bit awkward now.
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Feels like Factory got a lot of reviews and press because of the return, but they were a bit mixed, then Class Clown but a fair few reviews and they were a lot more positive. But it feels like Bears was a bit ignored in comparison, being their third album of the year and the novelty of their return having worn off it does feel like itās a bit overlooked. Would often see people seeing they lost interest after Class Clown but seems a real shame to skip over Bears, but felt very vindicated when I saw Bears has their highest RateYourMusic rating of this run.
I roll my eyes now every time they announce their third album of the year so I can understand it I suppose.
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Iād definitely agree with that part, someone (maybe @JaguarPirate ?) mentioned that itās great to hear him do a few rockier tunes on Factory because he gets very syrupy and sugary sweet on the following albums and thatās very true. The syrupy ones are really nice but his energetic ones are missed.
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Bears for lunch? Iāll give it a go
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Finger Gang is one of the worst things Iāve ever heard
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yeah, really excellent this
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Mum
Really enjoyed Letās Go Eat the Factory, odd but some great songs
The Corners Are Glowing is quite beautiful
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Bears For Lunch is pretty good! starts strong and really picks up steam towards the end. Might even be tempted to give it a second spinā¦
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Skin to Skin combat is fab. Perhaps I prefer Tobinās sweet ones. But Bobās voice is great on this album
For myself, love The Challenge is Much More into Waving at Airplanes - plays right into the strengths of both of them
Updated personal leaderboard - The Bears for Lunch does very well, love this album to bits 
- Bee Thousand
- Under The Bushes Under The Stars
- Propeller
- Alien Lanes
- Isolation Drills
- The Bears for Lunch
- 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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got to do my write up but lets start by polling about THE BEARS FOR LUNCH
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
0
voters
- King Arthur The Red
- The Corners Are Glowing
- Have A Jug
- Hangover Child
- Dome Rust
- Finger Gang
- The Challenge Is Much More
- Waving At Airplanes
- The Military School Dance Dismissal
- White Flag
- Skin To Skin Combat
- She Lives In An Airport
- Tree Fly Jet
- Waking Up The Stars
- Up Instead Of Running
- Smoggy Boy
- Amorphous Surprise
- You Can Fly Anything Right
- Everywhere Is Miles From Everywhere
0
voters
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Lovely to see White Flag doing so well. Probably the most un-GBV song on the album, which is one of the reasons why it stands out so much.
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Oh dear, Iām not getting anything much at all from this one.
Dome Rust has a nice chord change in it, I like the unexpected lead stuff on Amorphous Surprise (less so the rest of the song), and I think āyou fly it wrongā is a pretty funny line.
Actually, I forgot Waking Up the Stars, which is lovely
Decided to change one of my votes to either tree fly jet or finger gang to up the representation of bad/ridiculous songs; tree fly jet narrowly won
Finger Gang is silly but fun, Tree Fly Jet is awful
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I realised I actually just quite enjoy both of themā¦ wouldnāt choose to listen to either individually, but they provide a bit of roughage (probably a bad metaphor) that helps the whole album, or something
What percentage of shitty rubbish should there be on the ideal Guided By Voices / Robert Pollard album?
- 0% (definitely wrong answer)
- up to 10%
- up to 25%
- up to 50%
- more than that
- something else
0
voters