Guided By Voices: Alien Lanes Vinyl LP

Why you'll love it

This Matador LP comes with a download card. Pitchfork placed Alien Lanes at No. 27 in its top 100 albums of the 1990s, and Magnet named it the best album of 1995.

This edition

Download card included
Gatefold jacket

About the album

Robert Pollard's band from Dayton, Ohio, signed to Matador for an advance of close to a hundred thousand dollars, one of the label's bigger deals at the time. According to James Greer's history of the band, the recording itself cost roughly ten dollars, which tells you everything about where the money didn't go and where the songs came from.

Pollard and Tobin Sprout pack the record tight, most songs under two minutes, and the hooks arrive faster than you can file them. "A Salty Salute" opens the show like a bar-band anthem, "Watch Me Jumpstart" fizzes, Sprout's "A Good Flying Bird" and "Little Whirl" are pocket-sized gems, and "Motor Away" is two minutes of pure, wind-in-the-hair power pop. "King and Caroline" and "My Valuable Hunting Knife" show how much melody Pollard could fit into a song most bands would still be tuning up for. Rolling Stone heard hooky rock with real songwriting smarts and a whimsical experimental streak, and The Guardian called Pollard's songs gems.

It sits in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, right alongside Bee Thousand in most fans' affections. Side A alone has fifteen songs, so do keep the kettle handy; you'll be flipping it before it boils.

Also at Kops: more Guided By Voices on vinyl · browse Alternative

Tracklist

Side A
1. A Salty Salute
2. Evil Speakers
3. Watch Me Jumpstart
4. They're Not Witches
5. As We Go Up, We Go Down
6. (I Wanna Be A) Dumbcharger
7. Game Of Pricks
8. The Ugly Vision
9. A Good Flying Bird
10. Cigarette Tricks
11. Pimple Zoo
12. Big Chief Chinese Restaurant
13. Closer You Are
14. Auditorium
15. Motor Away

Side B
1. Hit
2. My Valuable Hunting Knife
3. Gold Hick
4. King And Caroline
5. Striped White Jets
6. Ex-Supermodel
7. Blimps Go 90
8. Strawdogs
9. Chicken Blows
10. Little Whirl
11. My Son Cool
12. Always Crush Me
13. Alright