Every Child Of God’s A Brat

Guided By Voices “The Best Of Jill Hives” – The forthcoming GBV album Earthquake Glue is still slowly growing on me, but I officially love this song now. This probably won’t make sense to anyone who isn’t already a GBV fan, but this new album sounds more like a Robert Pollard solo record to my ears. In terms of production and song style, I think Earthquake Glue falls somewhere between Not In My Airforce and Kid Marine. Sometimes it is rather blatant – “I”ll Replace You With Machines” sounds like a rewritten version of “Maggie Turns To Flies.”

I’m definitely glad that I’m coming around to this album, because the first few times I heard it, I was very disappointed with it, and was wondering where all the catchy songs were. There’s certainly nothing as incredibly pop as “Back To The Lake,” “Cheyenne,” or “Universal Truths & Cycles” on Earthquake Glue; but I can see now that this record is more about subdued melodicism, and that it’s not going for the pop brass ring like the last few Guided By Voices albums. This may be a turning point for Bob Pollard, the point where the differences between the “solo” and GBV records start to really blur because he’s finally given up on having a mainstream hit.

Dizzee Rascal “I Luv U” – Now this is interesting. This song seems to be like some sort of test for me, to see how many annoying bits I can endure and still enjoy a song overall. There’s something extremely bratty about this song; it seems to be made up of exclusively of grating elements that somehow come together to be something very exciting and fun. I alternately love and hate the fact that I can’t concentrate at all when I’m listening to it.

Ladies And Gentlemen, I Give You…

…the best review of a comic book, ever.