Guided By Voices
Do the Collapse (TVT)
by Aaron Lazenby
The first thing I noticed when Guided By Voices‘ latest long-player Do the Collapse landed in my mailbox was the big, bold type that proclaimed PRODUCED BY RIC OCASEK. My heart sunk when I imagined the used Cars frontman slickafying the sublime garbage-heap of rock’n’roll references that usually makes up a GBV record. My skepticism increased when I saw that Do the Collapse was put out on TVT Records and not the much-revered Matador. “Oh shit,” I thought. It looked like everything I’ve ever loved about GBV had been ruined by the work of the band’s new label trying to cash in on GBV’s ever-fresh sound and carefully sustained credibility. Guided By Voices has gone arena rock.
Not that those tendencies weren’t always a part of the Guided By Voices formula. On stage, Bob Pollard has made a name for himself by presiding over super high-energy beer-soaked events. But there was always a beautiful irony to watching this sloppy, rolly-polly forty-something ex-elementary school teacher swing his microphone around like Roger Daltry at Leeds. Sure he wants to rock, and we want to rock with him; but the pleasure of GBV has always been Pollard’s ability to balance the bloated rock spectacle with efficient and inspired music, unhampered by the less than Spartan trappings of the arena. This balance has to some degree been disrupted, making Do the Collapse an uneven attempt at tipping the scales toward the arena and away from the basement.
Do the Collapse‘s first track, “Teenage FBI,” sums up the album’s biggest problem in the extreme. The song’s gratuitous synths and silly lyrics would have topped out at 1:25 on any other GBV record. Some of the best moments in GBV history sound like brief entries in a personal journal – a sonic sketchbook in which ideas are recorded in their rawest form. The crime of “Teenage FBI,” and other such songs on Do the Collapse, is taking a potentially good small idea and blowing it up into a textured, multi-tracked spectacle. Do the Collapse‘s worst moments suffer from a self-importance not unlike Guns N’ Rose’s “November Rain.” Just listen to “Wormhole,” or “Much Better Mr. Buckles.” “Liquid Indian” is Mr. Ocasek’s most egregious crime, despite having the album’s funniest line “I’m a born again boot-stomping witch-humper.”
The worst aside, Do the Collapse does have its bright moments, and those moments do indeed succeed as big-ass rock’n’roll. “Surgical Focus,” the album’s infectious first single, features a reserved and effective use of backing vocals and some of the most intricate guitar work ever employed by GBV. “Hold on Hope” is an indie rock power ballad of the highest order, and to my knowledge, the band’s first song to use a string section. Even an extended guitar solo won’t slow down “Things That I will Keep,” a mid-tempo slice of pop melancholia that is both heartfelt and catchy. For all it flaws, Do the Collapse sounds like a band that’s been through a hell of a lot, trying to refine its work and stretch into new territory. Candy-Ocasek may not’ve been the best man at the helm, but you’ve got to give credit to Pollard for standing his ground – even if the joke fog machine and explosions don’t have a punchline.
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