Customer Reviews

Do the Collapse [Vinyl]

5 star:		(35)
4 star:		(26)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I have been a Guided By Voices fan for about 6 years now and still am struck about how tenaciously Bob Pollard's melodies stick in my brain. When I bought this album, I put it on at work and hit replay without telling anyone and let it play all day. The next day, the Garth Brooks and Skynyrd fans were all humming "Liquid Indian" and "Hold on Hope" without realising that they were betraying their country inclinations. That's what is so amazing about his songwriting: Bob Pollard has a way a slicing through the ordinary and mundane (read: commercial), to let the obscenely hummable shine through. The glossy sheen thrown on this record doesn't get in the way of that aesthetic. It's amazingly easy to ignore the Cars-like keyboards and beefed up guitars. This isn't really as over-produced as other long-time GBV fans let on. The fact that Bob can write a hook better than anyone else out right now isn't lost in this immediately apppealing work. Yeah, "Bee Thousand" is a a more cohesive, complete work, but if what you need is the major label sheen and completeness, this is a good place to start. If this were 1982, Guided By Voices would be opening for The Who, not The Clash. A great date album if you were trying to impress someone who is moderately in the know. If s/he is really hip, put "Bee Thousand" on. If trying to impress someone when your "in-the-know" isn't the point, this one will have him/her remembering something about the night, even if it isn't you.

First off, my general view of GBV is that you cannot judge their work after one listen, or even three or four. Each album usually consists of 16 to 25 songs. Oftentimes, each track is so short that they tend to pile on top of each other. It's hard to absorb them when they come so quickly, one after the other. You have to listen to them and concentrate on them. Eventually each song starts to distinguish itself from the rest, and you begin to appreciate them for the beautiful blend of traditional pop, new wave, hard rock, etc... I really enjoy this about them. Everything tends to blend together until you actively listen to them. then you appreciate the crafting of each song.

I didn't know what to think when I heard that Ric Ocasek had produced this album. I was just a child when he was at the pinnacle of his career with the Cars. As a consequence, I never truly appreciated his aestheticism and his artfulness. It's palpable from the very first track (Teenage FBI, with its fantastic edge of 80s New Wave beatifully interwoven with the GBV hooks and Pollard's wordplay). You'll sing along with every chorus and hum every guitar chop. In Stitches, Mushroom Art, and Liquid Indian are inspired. The whole album is well-crafted.

An excellent intro to the band for new listeners. Don't stop here, pick up others when you're ready.

I've read through most of the negative reviews below with interest. They seem to be written by either a) outraged lo-fi fans who want GBV to keep doing pretty much the same thing forever and b) GBV virgins who obviously wanted something a bit, er, straighter. Well ... don't listen to them. This is a brilliant album.

Mr. Pollard continues to pilfer licks and effects from every known pop music style of the last 35 years and make songs that seem eerily familiar yet completely new. Like tearing a phone book into scraps, throwing them into the air and having them turn into a bird.

The polished production on the album only means that you can hear every little detail on a boom box now. I don't care whether he continues to use Ocasek or not. The songs continue to be beautiful and evocative.

It should be noted that these songs are not supposed to make perfect sense all the time. They mean something to Mr. Pollard and they mean something to me. There might be some overlap, but that would just be icing on the cake. I only need to walk around humming "Liquid Indian" to bring back that wonderful swirling feeling of an exceptional acid trip from 15 years back. Dragons awake, indeed.

it really isn't as good as the other albums. all the stars on this page have been earned by the back catalogue and the live performances. it sounds like bob hasn't listened to the white album for years. he used to invent new forms of melody; now he recycles his own and other people's. his lyrics used to be weirdly involving; now they seem really impersonal, like the words have been picked out of some lotto machine. listen to chicken blows next to wrecking now or tractor rape chain next to surgical focus. there's no comparison. he's losing it, and it's sad. but gbv are still one of the top ten bands of all time.

Many of GBV's fans were so jolted by Ric Ocasek's wonderful hi-fi production on this CD that they failed to notice what a landmark work it really is. For legions of us long time Robert Pollard worshippers, a chance to see them live was also an opportunity to see what all of those great songs really sounded like, and returning to the often-distracting lo-fi recordings of these gems kinda made some of us wonder what GBV would sound like if the recordings weren't so muffled. Well, our wish has finally been granted with "Do The Collapse", not that the production's the only thing that makes this record one of only two records to reside on my Top Ten of All Time list. This is a staggering effort, with more fully realized beauties than one GBV or Robert Pollard collection has ever offered before. Besides the unforgettable catchiness of "Teenage FBI", "Surgical Focus" and "Mushroom Art", Pollard serves up a true rock and roll classic in the brilliant "Picture Me Big Time", which contains as moving a lyric as has ever graced a melody. Thanks again, Bob, and keep 'em coming.

how could any album with teenage FBI, things i will keep, surgical focus, liquid indian, mushroom art and an unmarketable product suck? answer: it can't and it doesn't. yes, ric ocesek produced it and it is slick and pollard tried his hand at writing a hit song (the power ballad hold on hope), this is a really good album. forget alien lanes and listen with new ears. for my money, this is the third best GbV album (after bee thousand and alien lanes.) unduly critized by so-called fans. your venom probably cost pollard his only chance at actually making some real money. all the joy he brought to the world and this is how he was thanked...by his own people. shame on you all. your true colors came out in 2000. so what did you move on to, anyway? built to spill or modest mouse?

ignore most of these reviews and enjoy!

It has always been a testament to Bob Pollard's extraordinary song-writing talent that listening to each and every record in Guided By Voices' extensive back catalogue, however committed to a hissing, low-fidelity sepulchre, yet yields a complex, bittersweet sort of pleasure. Listening to Do The Collapse for the first time, then, was like experiencing my Eustachian tubes becoming finally, joyously unblocked after a viral upper respiratory tract infection. Herein Bob and his chameleonic posse of itinerant artistes have created a heady espresso blended from exhilarating pop gems, untainted by tape noise and brought into joyous relief under the watchful eye of Ric Ocasek.

So much do I enjoy these songs, in fact, that I'm about to use a really dubious word and say that listening to them is an almost mystical experience. For example: Things I Will Keep creates curious feelings in my spinal cord, I get the same feeling from listening to Mushroom Art that I might derive from wandering around my favourite art gallery and Liquid Indian is, well, an incredibly good song, for want of anything more intelligent to say.

I admit, I am largely unfamiliar with the works of GBV but if this is unlike their other stuff, then they must be getting really good. This CD is full of wacky word play which matters little to me. Lyrics generally just fill space anyway. They are secondary to the music, which is extremely whistle-able here. If only I could write slabs of hook laden guitar pop like this...ah. Get it.

compared to most of the regurgitated pop sounds happening on MTV and the radio today. I understand many long time fans are disapointed but seeing how I bought Bee Thousand at the same time I have a hard time believing they are by the same band.. so, enjoy and drop the comparisons.. it's such a waste of listening time.

Get this record! I was quite skeptical when I heard that this album was produced by Ric Ocasek-I assumed it would be full of mediocre over-produced radio songs. However, it is what GBV does best--full of melodic, melancholy songs which are now fully developed. Alien Lanes stands as my favorite album--nothing can beat the emotional draw of songs like 'As We go Up We go Down". And, I doubt they can ever top the stark intensity of "Goldheart Mountaintop...." from Bee Thousand, but Do The Collapse is fantastic--especially "Dragons Awake." If only Tobin Sprout would return.....