Planets Are Blasted [Vinyl]

Boston Spaceships | Format: Vinyl

Product Details

• Vinyl (March 3, 2009)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: GUIDED BY VOICES
• ASIN: B001NRPR8E
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #432,105 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Canned Food Demons

2. Dorothy's a Planet

3. Tattoo Mission

4. Keep Me Down

5. Big O Gets an Earful

6. Catherine from Mid-October

7. Headache Revolution

8. Slyph

9. UFO Love Letters

10. Lake of Fire

11. Queen of Stormy Weather

12. The Town That's After Me

13. Sight on Sight

14. Heavy Crown

Editorial Reviews

Following a four-star review in Mojo and a successful whirlwind US tour, Boston Spaceships return to Earth just five months later with their sophomore album!

Chris Slusarenko (Guided By Voices, Sprinkler) and John Moen (Decemberists, Elliott Smith) have never been so impressive. Robert Pollard himself was sequestered in Dayton, Ohio for nearly two years without touring, concentrating on his songwriting and artwork. The trio's efforts are readily apparent on The Planets Are Blasted.

This nuanced and transcendent rock album culminates with four of Pollard's best songs yet. The majestic and metaphorical Queen of Stormy Weather, who threatens to pee on my parade, is followed by The Town That's After Me, which combines acoustic, electric guitar and strings to stunning effect. Sight on Sight, a four-minute mini-epic, detours to otherworldly chants, echoes and drones, sitars, handrums, and tambourines, but rocks like heck, and the verse of Heavy Crown is melodically reminiscent of the Guided By Voices hit Everywhere With Helicopter, but Pollard ups the ante with an even better chorus and then goes over the top with a still catchier refrain.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Bob's Best in Years!, March 7, 2009

By 

John D. Pride (Atlanta, GA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Planets Are Blasted (Audio CD)

Since the dissolution of GBV, Bob Pollard has tried to reinvent himself by sort-of staying the same and sort-of not. Some lo-fi here, some prog rock here, a mono acoustic track over there and a genuine pop gem in the mix somewhere. Well, for fans who were waning, help is here, both from this disc and Pollard's new "Crawling Distance". The best news is that the new BS CD has more memorable songs than any of Bob's CDs in about 5 years. In fact, for 5 of the album's first 7 tracks, the Spaceships evoke the ghost and spirit of the Zombies, Kinks and Beatles while otherwise conjuring the spirit of Roy Wood's Move & Wizzard days, without aping the mersey era's tricks per se. This is a great record - fans needn't be afraid anymore!

5.0 out of 5 stars Same Place The Planets Got Blasted, August 6, 2009

By 

Hoagie Mike (Sacramento, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Planets Are Blasted (Audio CD)

Once again, Boston Spaceships delivers a tight and tuneful, garage-rock-pop-prog-pysch-post-punk record, chock full of classic Robert Pollard nuggets. This band resembles vintage GBV, as a good contrast to Pollard's in-name solo records, with it sounding like a real band rockin' out in the garage. Track 2 & 3 even feature gbv alumni Greg Demos on lead guitar, how cool is that!?! Some of the tunes remind me of gbv's very early period, hence the title of this review. Favorites are the snappy opener "Canned Food Demon", "Dorothy's A Planet", "The Town That's After Me", the multi-section "Sight On Sight", the GBV-esque rocker anthem "Heavy Crown", and the grand, prog-rock gem "Big 'O Gets An Earful". Indeed, this is another diamond in the neverending Pollard collection. Just as good as the first Boston Spaceships cd, "Brown Submarine", and maybe even better.
Rock!

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Incredible!, June 29, 2009

By 

Dan Thomas "dthomas850" (Cleveland, Ohio) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Planets Are Blasted (Audio CD)

Incredible collection of songs! Definitely some of Bob's best ever! In my opinion Robert Pollard is the greatest singer/songwriter on the planet! And blasted, too! This CD and "Brown Submarine" are both absolutely fantastic. If you are a pollard and/or GBV fan buy them both now! You will not regret it.