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Universal Truths and Cycles
 
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Universal Truths and Cycles

Guided by Voices
4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (51 customer reviews) | More about this product
Price: $16.98 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details
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Songs from this album are available to purchase as MP3s. Click on "Buy MP3" or view the MP3 Album.

Samples
Song Title Time Price
listen  1. Wire Greyhounds0:35$0.99 Buy Track
listen  2. Skin Parade 2:57$0.99 Buy Track
listen  3. Zap 1:14$0.99 Buy Track
listen  4. Christian Animation Torch Carriers 3:54$0.99 Buy Track
listen  5. Cheyenne 2:58$0.99 Buy Track
listen  6. The Weeping Bogeyman 1:35$0.99 Buy Track
listen  7. Back to the Lake 2:33$0.99 Buy Track
listen  8. Love 10:54$0.99 Buy Track
listen  9. Storm Vibrations 4:59$0.99 Buy Track
listen10. Factory Of Raw Essentials 1:26$0.99 Buy Track
listen11. Everywhere With Helicopter 2:36$0.99 Buy Track
listen12. Pretty Bombs 3:06$0.99 Buy Track
listen13. Eureka Signs 3:06$0.99 Buy Track
listen14. Wings of Thorn 2:10$0.99 Buy Track
listen15. Car Language 4:44$0.99 Buy Track
listen16. From A Voice Plantation 2:06$0.99 Buy Track
listen17. The Ids Are All Right 1:10$0.99 Buy Track
listen18. Universal Truths And Cycles 2:18$0.99 Buy Track
listen19. Father Sgt. Christmas Card 2:04$0.99 Buy Track

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Frequently Bought Together

Universal Truths and Cycles + Do the Collapse + Isolation Drills
Price For All Three: $50.94

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  • This item: Universal Truths and Cycles ~ Guided by Voices

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    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

  • Do the Collapse ~ Guided by Voices

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    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

  • Isolation Drills ~ Guided by Voices

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Product Details

  • Audio CD (June 18, 2002)
  • Original Release Date: June 18, 2002
  • Number of Discs: 1
  • Label: Matador Records
  • ASIN: B000066JFA
  • In-Print Editions: Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (51 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #40,972 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

    Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

    #53 in  Music > Indie Music > Alternative Rock > American Alternative
    #90 in  Music > Indie Music > Alternative Rock > Indie & Lo Fi

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Everybody knows they should be right up there with the Pixies and Pavement. But seeing as how Guided by Voices are still slogging away in crammed studios and beer-stained dives, no one is willing to decree them certifiable underground rock gods just yet. When the time comes, however, here is more evidence for frontman-mastermind Robert Pollard's case. Universal Truths and Cycles is at points frustrating, gorgeous, catatonic, uplifting, uncertain, and, yes, even translucent. It feels like the entire history of psych-punk--with rich references to the Beatles, XTC, the Modern Lovers, Wire, and Three O'Clock--distilled into 46 of the most invigorating minutes of your life. Glorious songs like "Skin Parade" and "Wings of Thorn" not only see the band on form after a brief, perhaps misjudged, dalliance with the mainstream, but sounding like they are ready to rewrite the entire history of rock & roll. Staggering. --Aidin Vaziri


Product Description

Follow-up to the 2001 album Isolation Drills, this album features 19 glittering pop melodies. In a return to self-production, the band recorded in a variety of different studios, on different media, on 8-track and 24-track. The result is more akin to their earlier albums combined with the efficiency of execution and musicianship of the more recent recordings. digipak. 2002. Matador.

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Customer Reviews

51 Reviews
5 star:
 (29)
4 star:
 (10)
3 star:
 (8)
2 star:
 (2)
1 star:
 (2)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.2 out of 5 stars (51 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars please keep rocking, bob, October 15, 2002
By Sam Bloom (Indianapolis, IN United States) - See all my reviews
If you want to rock like you haven't rocked since 1973, GBV is for you. If you like your songs short, not-so-sweet, and to the point, GBV is for you. If you enjoy concerts where the band drink like fish and the lead singer poses like a strange Roger Daltrey/Robert Plant/Bon Scott hybrid, GBV is for you.

With lots of GBV stuff, it's hit-or-miss, but not here. From the opening rocker "Wire Greyhounds" to the closing sing-along "Father Sgt. Christmas Card," Robert Pollard and the crew deliver the goods in prime 1960s British Invasion fashion. Other standouts (and already GBV classics) include "Christian Animation Torch Carriers," "Cheyenne," "Eureka Signs," and "The Ids are Alright."

If you are a fan of: the Kinks, the Who, the Beatles, the Hollies, Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, the Zombies, etc.: BUY THIS ALBUM! You won't be sorry. And while you're at it, buy the earlier GBV stuff, too. Just throw that money around. Pollard and Co. will toast you with a Miller Lite at their next sloshy show.

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars First Universal Truth...A Classic in Form, Flow & Production, June 18, 2002
Critics have been writing that this album is a "return" to the greatness of Alien Lanes, Bee Thousand era GbV but that would be an oversimplification....Because this collection of songs moves the band forward in many different ways.Yes, there's the short songs peppered through this album ala Alien Lanes...But Pollard has totally mastered the art of writing a short yet complete song like Wire Greyhounds :36 the opener on Universal Truths.Yes there are many of these brief mid-fi jewels(Zap,Love 1,The Weeping Bogeyman,Factory of Raw Essentials,The Ids are Alright)and they are the glue that flows this album so perfectly.But what I truly love about this album are the prog rock songs.These four songs are standouts: Christian Animation Torch Carriers,Storm Vibrations,Pretty Bombs & Car Language.Christian Animation Torch Carriers & Storm Vibrations are beautiful songs that build with soaring & crashing melodies.Pretty Bombs uses brilliantly twisted instrumentation from a string quartet to push the envelope of experimentation.Car Language also pushes the envelope with nifty little sound effects....guitars beeping like car horns but not in an obvious way, kind of swirling through the song for you discover for yourself..Again GENIUS.Yes and there are the singles those catchy songs that Pollard writes so effortlessly.There are 3 standouts, Cheyenne(pristine Pollard vocals & phrasing)Everywhere with Helicopter(infectious rocker)Back to the Lake(another beauty)The remaining songs a little harder to catagorize but they are just as good, Skin Parade( a bit of a stomper),The Whoish Wings of Thorn,Eureka Signs, From a Voice Plantation...and the perfect album closer,Father Sargent Christmas Card.This self produced album has it all;it brings all together in form, flow & production & it pushes the artistic envelope in all the right places.Buy it now!
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Return to Form...Bob is the King, June 25, 2002
By A Customer
Bob has a way of taking all that has been done before and filtering it down to the best elements. This album is diverse and glorious. One of GBV's most consistent offerings, it also offers flashes of the brilliance we all love from Bee Thousand, Alien Lanes, Under the Bushes, etc. A real plus here is the spontaneity of mid-90's GBV coupled with a reasonable level of fidelity. Wire Greyhounds, Skin Parade, Storm Vibrations, Everywhere With Helicopter, Eureka Signs, and Cheyenne are all instantly enjoyable. Most of the others will creep up on you the way Bee Thousand did after 7 or 8 listens. Bob is without question the greatest songwriter of the last decade assuming "great" is defined by the sheer number of outstanding rock songs written over the period. Long live Bob Pollard.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars A step down
This album is ok but not nearly up there with classics suchs as Alien Lanes, Devil Between My Toes, Bee Thousand, Under The Bushes Under The Stars and my personal favorite... Read more
Published 14 months ago by Stephen B. Sumemrlin

5.0 out of 5 stars The complete picture
The best cd of GBV phase two .... Probably (I know I'm out on a limb here) the best cd of their whole career. Read more
Published on February 9, 2007 by M. gregory

5.0 out of 5 stars My introduction
After reading references to GBV in Dennis Cooper novels, I finally bought a GBV CD. I got this one when it was brand-new, and I loved loved loved it. Read more
Published on November 15, 2006 by greyhound1954

4.0 out of 5 stars something's amiss
universal truths and cycles, guided by voices thirteenth album, has the best of intentions. all it lacks is color. every GbV record has a flavor all its own. not this one. Read more
Published on July 22, 2006 by scot lade

4.0 out of 5 stars Straddling the Line of Cult and Pop Culture
One universal truth is that Guided By Voices make one hell of a lot of music. Another universal truth is that when it comes to quality, it varies like crazy. Read more
Published on June 1, 2006 by Thomas D. Ryan

4.0 out of 5 stars The new old sound redux?
Let's start off by saying this is not the place to start. I think that it is a good album but not without a solid knowledge of the band. Read more
Published on July 18, 2005 by George a Pletz

5.0 out of 5 stars Vniversally vnderrated trvths and cycles
While certainly praised by critics and real people alike, I still get a vibe that this is an underrated GBV album. Read more
Published on May 22, 2005 by Tim "circle of irony " Steele

5.0 out of 5 stars Stormcloud eyes
I've been a GBV fan for many years, since at least 1994/95, and I have most of their records -- and that's saying something! Read more
Published on May 21, 2005 by Matt Foster

5.0 out of 5 stars yet another killer album
I'm a late comer to GBV. Now I'm full on addicted. This happened to be the album that hooked me (not Bee Thousand, which I bought the same time as this). Read more
Published on December 5, 2004 by Sean Draine

3.0 out of 5 stars The truth about cycles.
GUIDED BY VOICES may be the most underappreciated underground pop/rock act ever. They've been around for decades and are still crafting catchy lo AND hi fi songs at a rate of... Read more
Published on January 3, 2004 by Hogarth Hughes

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