Customer Reviews

Isolation Drills

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(29)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Imagine that the best rock songwriter in the world came up to you and said, "Hey, I got together with my friends and recorded demos of some new tunes in my living room. Want the tape?" What would you say? "Wow! I can't wait to hear what the best rock songwriter in the world has been up to," or perhaps, "No, thanks -- I won't waste time on hissy, distorted recordings, no matter how good the material may be."

Unfortunately for Guided By Voices, too many rock fans in the '90s gave the second reply, leaving such lo-fi masterpieces as *Bee Thousand* and *Alien Lanes* largely unheard, except by critics, indie zealots, and Ohio cultists. The average record buyer just couldn't imagine that a track with an unpromising title like "Tractor Rape Chain," sloppily recorded in someone's basement, could be the equal of such guitar pop jewels as the Beatles' "Ticket to Ride" or an R.E.M. gem from the early '80s. But it is.

The marvelous *Isolation Drills* is the culmination of GBV's five-year plan to boost the recording quality and accessibility of its music while preserving its intelligence and amazing melodic richness. *Under the Bushes Under the Stars* was the first halting step out of the basement, mixing more competently captured home-brewed tunes with some clean studio tracks. (That album's halfway position between sloppy and slick GBV, and its astonishing set of great songs, make it the perfect introduction to the group.) *Mag Earwhig!* was a full-fledged studio production, and *Do the Collapse* added a fancy producer (Ric Ocasek). *Isolation Drills* perfects the studio formula while improving on the somewhat hit-or-miss song quality of the last two albums.

When an album is this good, and this consistent, there is little point in singling out individual songs; almost every tune has the potential to be someone's favorite. Nevertheless: "Skills Like This" is possibly the most exciting rocker the band has ever done; "Twilight Campfighter" is sadly beautiful; and "Glad Girls" is an utterly perfect power pop anthem (so is "Chasing Heather Crazy," for that matter, but one has to stop the list somewhere).

A track that highlights GBV's changed attitude toward traditional pop values is "The Enemy," a pummeling mid-tempo rocker. In the old days, a tune like this would have run about 90 seconds, leaving listeners hungry for more. But today's GBV understands that rock is essentially a minimalist art form (this is why the best art rock of the last 25 years apes the procedures of minimalist composers more than it follows the lead of Romantic symphonists). One of the key techniques of musical minimalism is the repetition, with subtle variation, of short melodic phrases. In "The Enemy," GBV takes a cool riff and hammers it home over and over as the tune runs to its full 4'30" length. Fans of the band's former fragmentary style may scoff, but I find the impact exhilarating.

Finally, it's worth noting that the best rock songwriter in the world, Robert Pollard, is also a pretty good lead singer, with an unusually acute sense of pitch. Many rock singers, especially those working out a bend-the-notes, pitch-is-a-continuum blues tradition or some scream-oriented aesthetic, couldn't tell the difference between a C and a C# on a piano, much less in their own mouths. Pollard can. His finely honed melodies actually demand precise singing, which he delivers.

Isolation Drills is another great album by GBV. Obviously alot of people are snivelling about the fact that GBV have left their 4-track lo-fi days behind. But as Robert Pollard has said, the whole reason that GBV has existed from the beginning is to make big rock records like this; they just didn't have the money or technology when they made those earlier records. The way I see it, good songs are good songs, whether they're recorded on a Sony boombox or a 64-track digital soundboard. Tracks like "The Brides have Hit Glass", "Twilight Campfighter", "Skills Like This", and especially "Unspirited" are as good as anything GBV has ever done. Anyone who dismisses this album as an over-produced sellout is obviously completely missing the point. True GBV know that Isolation Drills is top-knotch.

One of the great things about a group like GBV is with a catalogue as massive as theirs, there is never a drought between albums. Between the eclectic one-offs, the eps and revisiting past albums, you can always find a corner of their universe that feels good. So right now I am listening to drills again. This album is fantastic! More focused than Do The Collapse, the album represents all that makes the band great writ widescreen. This album showed two things. First, Gillard is a guitar god! He ably fuses all the influences of the group into a sound that is flexible, powerful and absolutely now. When I heard the solo in "The Enemy" the first time I knew. While I have nothing but love for all those who held the position before, Gillard is the perfect foil for Bob. Secondly, GBV's songs ably stand up to the larger sound. "Unspirited" and "Privately" could have shined along side such brilliant sketches like Dusted but the addition of strings is a serious advancement of the GBV sound. Such latter day (uh..current actually) classics such as Pretty Bombs (UTAC)or Dig Through My Window (Prince Whippet) would not have been possible. Sure there are songs like "How's My Drinking?" and "Fine To see You" which briefly sandbag the propulsion of the album but they fall much later in the record. 2 out of 16 is not a bad ratio! With two excellent blocks of songcraft at opposite sides of the album (the trifectas of "Fair Touching-Skills Like This- Chasing Heather Crazy" and "Glad Girls-Run Wild- Pivotal Film" repsectively), you can easily program them out. This is a album with legs! Simply an incredible album. I think age has been very kind to this album. A pivotal album when looking towards where the band is now!

How could this be anything but 5 stars, especially with the garbage that [comes] out regularly on radio, mtv, etc. Sometimes I think we judge Bob to harshly because of the masterpieces like "Bee Thousand", "Alien Lanes", etc. The guy is master songwriter and we should indulge Bob, Doug, and the rest a chance at bringing just a little bit of that charm to the masses and hopefully get the recognition that Bob and GBV so justly deserve. This hi-fi recording stands on its own with some very good songs. Let's face it, you will be humming "Chasing Heather Crazy" before you know it, and thinking how cool "Unspirited" sounds. Then you might just think that, like I do that "The brides have hit glass" is a real GBV gem for the ages. The Replacements and GBV are my favorite bands of all time. The Replacements are long gone but we still get the pleasure of listening Bob and the boys hopefully for years to come. And so what if is hi-fi, it beats rap, bubblegum (Britney, Backstreet boys), Korn, or whatever nonsense is being played around this world. Do your self a favor and buy this, and by all means by the rest of the GBV collection (Don't forget Bob and Tobin Sprout's solo work).

If you are anything like me: A dude with nothing better to do then read amazon reviews and even take advice from some of them (I get a kick out of the lists too) I'm sure you have read ad nauseam that this album and everyone after UTBUTS is an example of GBV's evil produced sound and should therefore be burned at the stake or meet a similar fate befitting the pure evil inherent in them. Well, I say it's time we give these people the state of Oregon and let them develop their own commune where they can ban motorized vehicles and any music not produced on a four track or worse. (They will come begging to us when they forget to produce toilet paper and other neccesities)...

I'm here to tell the people firmly rooted in reality that this is GBV's best album and, considering it came after the very great DO THE COLLAPSE (Ocasek can still bite me though), it's a shining example of Robert Pollard's peak song writing period. High praise indeed, considering the high quality of all GBV material, but I'm sticking to it.

Every song on here is at least very good and most are freakin great! From song 1-16 this is an incredibly strong album and show cases the many faces of Pollard. You want rockers? How bout "Pivotal Film", "Want One?", "Run Wild" or "Skills Like This" (a personal fav.) You want the 70's prog rock god? There's "The Enemy" or "Privately". Affecting quietier moments? Try "Sister I Need Wine", "Fine to See You" or the very personal "Hows My Drinking". Sugar coated pop-rock classics? Hit "Fair Touching", "Chasing Heather Crazy" and of course "Glad Girls". There is even "Frostman" for the BEE THOUSAND freaks. And I believe "Twilight Campfighter", "Unspirited" and "The Brides Have Hit Glass" to be examples of Uncle Bob at his song writing best...Thats all of them I believe. A strong song list indeed. Pound for pound GBV's very best studio album.

So there I said it: ISOLATION DRILLS rocks!!!...And while I'm at it, I got one more thing to get off my chest: I personally think BEE THOUSAND is a tad bit overrated and that some people say its their favorite because they feel bullied by the "lo-fi thought police". Sure its a classic and the most important step in the history of GBV, but to put it on this untouchable and undebatable pedestal...I better zip it now before I piss off the lo-fi, soon to be Oregonite freaks...

I thought i'd get your attention with that Pollard style title so here we go.
I discovered Gbv performing in a club on t.v. and i thought they rocked but like a fool i didn't pursue my interest.
Later i caught Gbv performing on Austin city limits and they again took my breath away with the band and fans having a drunken ball so i got off my butt and bought "Isolation drills" as it had "Glad Girls" which is the song that stung me.
Man, it's all about the music so anyone who might have been concerned about just the lo-fi aspect are as superficial as the mainstream scene that Indie rock was rebelling against to begin with.
You might as well call The Beatles "Sgt Peppers" a sell out because the Beatles had really refined their studio polish and taken advantage of all the other gadgets that a studio can offer to EXPAND their musical aspirations or horizons.
"Isolation Drills" is a dignified and special work of art.
Robert Pollard has given us a glimpse into his soul and a courageous look into his pain.
A pain resulting from a relationship on the rocks and displayed with a touching honesty and eloquence that is very compelling.
Songs such as "The brides have hit glass" reveal his hope to resusitate a fragile crackling bond of love that in reality is already broken.
"So i'll just hang around and take my chance
Once again i'll roll the dice And try to hang on to my shrinking paradise"

"Run Wild" reveals crushed dreams and the resulting abandon.

"Wooden heads on the chopping block And other hearts pumping ink That spills out over dreams of antiquity Pale but full of ghostly charm Leave your things in the street and run wild!"

"Sister i need wine" and "How's my drinking" reveal a uncontrollable self destruction and a cocky defiant stance in the fog of denial.
"And i am hating the ignorance in my body"
Yet "I won't change".

"Fine to see you" finds our hero hit rock bottom as he reveals that "there is nowhere to go but up" but that line alone sheds a shining hopeful optimism.

Melodic wise the songs range from glorious irresistable power pop gems like "Glad Girls" and "Chasing heather crazy" that have that same kind of catchy stick with you like glue magic as the classic "Game of Pricks".
You'll also find prog rock thunder in "The Enemy" and chiming folk rock beauty in "Twillight Campfighter" which contains one of Pollards most tender melodies drenched with "Byrds" influenced harmonies.
In short, "Isolation Drills" is one of Guided by Voices best albums bursting with a touching and revealing honesty that is performed with the utmost soul.
There may be polish but this kind of polish does nothing but reveal a glowing splendour of transcendant art.
For a fan to turn their back on this is the same as a Beatles fan who loved their early mop top sound yet refused to open their eyes to the treasures of "Revolver" and "Abbey Road".
Trully a loss.

Oscar F.

For those of you already familiar with G.B.V. this cd rates right up there with Alien Lanes and Bee Thousand.Gone forever are quirky song snippets and the endearing lo-fi production. But with this album it's the songs that shine and Bob's voice has never sounded better.This album is well produced unlike the overproduced," Do the Collapse". There is a certain sadness to some of the songs but the melodies soar.This album would be a great starting point to discover the genius of Robert Pollard.Or if you hated "Do the Collapse" To rediscover the brillance of G.B.V.

Big guitars, big drums...big production! Holy mackerel! What's going on here? I thought Guided By Voices were supposed to be `low-fi'. The only song on this disk that remotely qualifies is "Frostman", and it's such a toss-off that it barely has any relevance to the proceedings. The real action here lies in the bigness of it all. The production (done by Rob Schnapf - sorry, I don't know who he is either) almost takes center stage on this disk, but is thankfully overridden by the typically engaging melodies of songwriter Robert Pollard. Normally, production like this would go almost unnoticed, but Guided By Voices is a band that has released albums consisting almost entirely of cassette recordings, so the change is certainly notable, if not a specific reason to celebrate. If nothing else, the crappy, `low-fi' production of their past gave the band a unique identity that this record dismisses. Although Isolation Drills denies the band of one of its most definable characteristics, there is little real damage done, because what really matters is the songs, and Pollard has done a better than adequate job here, even surpassing some of his previous personal best. Full of hummable melodies and constructed from Pollard's typically twisted lyrical manifestations, each song grabs at you, holding on until you succumb and start singing along, even if the imagery is bizarre.
More than most other GBV albums, most songs here have a distinct rhythmic footprint ("The Enemy", "Unspirited", "The Brides Have Hit Glass", "Privately"). This is mostly due to the exacting guitar work of Doug Gillard, whose presence is more responsible for the new, `improved' GBV than any other single factor. This is easily the band's most consistent album, which of course is usually a good thing, but GBV are capable of a broad array of soundscapes. They seem to reel themselves in here, sticking to more conventional methods, which can only be distracting if you're an old fan. Veteran listeners will likely note that this collection of songs blends together in a much more homogenous manner than usual, and that is a mixed blessing. Most rock bands function exactly like this, treating uniformity as a quality rather than a hindrance, but GBV were a different animal. In the name of finding a mainstream audience, GBV embraces this theory here, with a defined band sound, full of harmonies and enhanced guitars. That makes this one of the band's most accessible records, but it also could make it the album with the shortest shelf life, since the `modern' production will likely be the very reason that it ages faster than their `low-fi' stuff. Time will tell.
A- Tom Ryan

Robert Pollard is such an inhumanly talented songwriter he sometimes makes the rest of us want to give up. It's commonly said that Pollard packs more killer hooks on one CD than most bands do in a career, and that's true more than ever on Isolation Drills.

Leaving behind his beloved garages and basements for a real studio and a real producer (Rob Schnapf, whose work here is exemplary) the boys from Dayton turned out the "big rock" album that Do The Collapse wanted to be, and that we all knew they had in them. For the lo-fi side of the band you can't go wrong with Bee Thousand and Alien Lanes, but for the more polished side this is their best CD in my opinion, although Bee Thousand will always be number one overall in my book.

This lineup was one of GBV's best, and they rock with authority and purpose throughout. Special mention needs to be made of Doug Gillard's killer combination of power and taste. Pollard as usual channels Lennon, Daltrey and Bowie without ever ripping anyone off. Why this man is not a household name I will never understand, as he is not only the best songwriter in two or three generations, but one of the best singers. I swear I almost had a religious experience during "Alone Stinking and Unafraid" at a concert once. He's just that good.

In any kind of a fair and just world, "Chasing Heather Crazy" and "Glad Girls" would have been massive hits. Both are classic examples of GBV power pop and each is one huge hook after another. I caught the band in Toronto before Isolation Drills was even out yet and not only did the entire audience sing along to "Glad Girls" but were singing it on the streets after the show! (Shout out to the venerable Lee's Palace!) Like all of Pollard's best songs, it's that instantly memorable and insanely catchy.

Elsewhere the band rocks hard (The Enemy, Pivotal Film) gets endearingly weird (the lo-fi throwback "Frostman," the nonsensical garage rock of "Want One?") and of course piles on more of that majestic power pop such as a glorious remake of "Fair Touching" (I've always wondered-is this song about ants?)

Despite it's devastating lyric, "How's My Drinking" has a lighter-waving wordless vocal ending that will make classic rock fans swoon. And then there's "The Brides Have Hit Glass," probably the best written song on here and man is that saying something! The lyric about a failing relationship was widely interpreted as autobiographical as Pollards marriage was breaking up at the time. Despite the sadness, you'll chuckle when Pollard actually name-checks the very song he's singing and gets away with it! This track has one of those magical little moments that made GBV what they were, when Pollard sings "just to be around her...just to feel bad" and the band drops out on the word "bad" leaving the word hanging there lonely and vulnerable. It's one split second on an entire CD but for me it encapsulates what made them so very very special. They are sorely missed by this reviewer, and I give Isolation Drills my absolute highest recommendation to absolutely any fan of real rock 'n roll.

This is a solid recording with several worthy tracks that stick, and that remain true to the underlying gbv aesthetic, albeit in a way that signals the band's continued evolution.

Yeah, I like Bee Thousand better too, but so what? There's little value in wistfully comparing gbv circa 2001 to the band five or six years ago. This album is worth contemplating on its own terms--yes, far more slicked-up and pop oriented, but should the band force itself to stay locked in the basement with a 4-track for the rest of its life?

Several years ago some people criticised Pollard et al. for becoming a parody of themselves, for staying with the lo-fi sound even when they became popular enough to make a "proper" studio album. Well, now they've gone into the studio and used the technology for all it's worth--and some people are griping about *that* too. Can't win with some folks.

Bands that never deviate from their primal trajectory (e.g. AC/DC, most famously) get boring fast, at least to my ears. I'll take a chance on a vital band that's always working to develop its sound in interesting ways, even when I may occasionally be disappointed with the literal results. I still applaud the effort.

The alternative is a corpse onstage mouthing yesterday's passions.

"Isolation Drills" is worth a listen on its own merits, and the band's live show is still killer, as is evidenced by a recent Chicago tour stop.

In Bob we trust.