Isolation Drills

Guided by Voices

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 3, 2001)
• Original Release Date: April 3, 2001
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Tvt
• ASIN: B00005ABFM
• In-Print Editions: Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (73 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #78,411 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com's Best of 2001

Indie rockers loved for their lo-fi sound always risk losing fans when they shine their new releases with big-band polish. Luckily for Guided by Voices zealots, their prolific king, Robert Pollard, can't seem to steer his band any direction but up. On Isolation Drills, GBV builds on the full sound of Do the Collapse, enlisting Robert Scnapf (Foo Fighters, Elliott Smith, Beck) to help with production. The result is a two-tiered record that sparkles with the fullness of fuzzy guitars, pounding drums, and the backing textures of organ, piano, and strings, while cracking the code of Pollard's more fragile psyche.

The band's gritty sound has swelled into a grand sonic landscape, but a closer look shows a pockmarked world existing between the lyrical lines. Pollard's whimsical songwriting takes a turn for the serious on a number of Isolation songs. On "The Brides Have Hit Glass," he laments, "It won't last/ To be on top of your own world/ With no guard rails to cling onto/ You fall so very fast." On "How's My Drinking?" he almost slurs the words about ceasing to care for sobriety as he sings, "I won't change," and coos with the rest of the melody. Isolation is a brilliant mix of uptempo Pollard anthems ("Glad Girls") teetering on the edge of a fractured looking glass. --Jennifer Maerz

Product Description

Isolation Drills is a masterful album from start to finish with a balance of rock gems and beautiful pop melodies. Produced by Rob Schnapf, whose previous credits include Foo Fighters, Beck, Elliot Smith and the Toadies. The 2001 album is a stunning testament to the brilliant evolution of this wondrous band. Includes 'Chasing Heather Crazy', 'Glad Girls', 'Skills Like This' (featuring Elliot Smith) and 'The Brides Have Hit Glass'. Digipak.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The last great rock band learns the value of repetition, May 27, 2001

By	J. M. Ramirez - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Drills revisitied, April 7, 2003

By	George a Pletz "cult explorer" (Central PA, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars lo-fi, hi-fi, who cares?, April 24, 2001

By	Christian Bonner (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.