Half Smiles of the Decomposed
Guided by Voices
Album Description After twenty-odd years and twenty-odd releases, this is the final album by Ohio's famed geniuses. It's their most serious and mature record in years, more akin to those recorded in the mid-90s than the most recent releases. At the same time, it's influenced by both American and British mid-60s chime-pop, pointing out the intricate interweaving guitar lines, the stunning wordplay, the vastly melancholic and somehow still uplifting tone, the impeccably tossed-off phrasing, and the stately, plump rhythm section. Elegiac and remorseful; a jewel of a farewell.
A Final Salute To The Greatest Band Ever Up until watching GBV in concert in New York this past April, I had never been disappointed by the band. I wasn't necessarily disappointed that night, but I didn't enjoy the concert as much as I have previous ones. Maybe because a bunch of drunken fools who couldn't carry a tune and at times didn't know the words to the songs were constantly trying to wrestle the mic from Robert Pollard's hands-I didn't go to see some strange drunk who doesn't know the words to Echos Myron try to finish up the last song of the encore. I went for the reason I go to all GBV concerts--to watch one drunken individual and his band who are usually also drunk and still play better than all bands sober. I think the real reason why I didn't enjoy the concert as much that night is because it was the first time they announced the band was breaking up, and so began the anticipation for what would be the final GBV album ever-hopefully not. If it is the band's swan song, then I still truly haven't been disappointed by the band. Has Robert Pollard achieved as close to perfect an album he required before he decided to disband? Not quite. The band's previous four efforts are equal to or far greater than this one, but that doesn't diminish this one by any stretch. Like all their other albums, it still has several gems. "Everybody Thinks I'm a Raincloud(When I'm Not Looking)" and "Huffman Prairie Flying Field" are fitting bookends for the entire album. A discerning fan will enjoy it. A musical elitist who surely stopped listening to the band four albums ago when they expanded on their lo-fi beginnings, surely will not, but is there anything that can please a musical elitist? They don't even like what they like. To the discerning fan, sit back and enjoy the final offering of the greatest, most prolific band ever. I can't wait for the two shows in New York in December. Mutations and Incarnations The Last GBV Album, Half Smiles of The Decomposed, will be the most underrated and misunderstood in the catalog, perhaps eclipsed by the lukewarm Do The Collapse. While these two albums couldn't be more opposed in sound, they show the band making a choice to focus on a specific element in the sound. While Collapse embraced the cracked arena rock leanings of the group, Half Smile is about the intimate melancholy. The album is as down as the group can get. Sure they perk up alittle for "Girls of Wild Strawberries", a Glad Girls for four years later or the morning after, and "Huffman Prairie" but, it is the tiny post lo-fi moments that dominate here. It feels like two pre TVT eps fused together and informed by the knowledge of the years after. Certainly tepid compared to the two "return to Matador" albums but certainly heartfelt. The first problem is that the album lacks a certain coherence which suggest perhaps two eps would have been preferred. It is the first album in some time released by GBV which feels alittle long, even at its brief length. Secondly, the band feels submerged and lacking a true identity beyond Pollard's backing band. While this harkens back to early incarnations of the band, I miss the band who made themselves known on the last three albums. With the constant mutations that has been norm for the band I guess this should not be a surprise. That said I can't help but feel that if this had been released as Pollard project under a different name, it would not have been easier to take. Up to this point the identity of GBV and Pollard's other works had been clearly divided. Here the later has overtaken the former. You have two choices. Either accept Earthquake Glue as the last album of the last incarnation of GBV. OR take your favorite tracks from here and fuse them with The Pipe Dreams of Instant Price Whippet and imagine you live in an alternate universe. A footnote for fans but NOT the place to start. Pick a spot from about ten years ago and work from there, both backwards and forwards. An acceptable album from an incredible band is better than most CDs you can buy. Still it simply does not stand on its own like their better works. (Besides if I wanted to hear good Bob side project stuff, I'd listen to Choreographed Man of War or the first Bob and Doug album.) Grows on you... ...don't groan: often, reviews summed up in the phrase above come from someone who really "wants to like" the album in question, but are reluctant to let their gut judgement prevail. However, this isn't one of those. I'd just like to sing some praises of a good album that might at first blush seem "anticlimactic" as the final GBV record. _Half Smiles..._ is not quite as immediate and catchy as the previous one, _Earthquake Glue_. But don't think it simply pales in comparison as a result. This one's just a bit moodier and subdued; even when it's upbeat and catchy, it's still got a twinge of world-weariness. Similarly-sequenced as _Earthquake Glue_, _Half Smiles..._ does seem a bit front-loaded, with all the catchiest numbers in the first third or so of the CD: here, they are "Everyone Thinks I'm A Raincloud," (do they, now) "Girls of Wild Strawberries," and "Gonna Never Have to Die." "Window of My World" will get into your skull with its wondering-boy-poet melody and unexpectedly pumped-up refrain. But the rest of the album satisfies, too. The moods throughout fluctuate interestingly between lightweight, pensive, elegiac, and back again, giving the album a coherent overall "feel" that adds to its allure. It all works, and it's too bad this is the last one. Then again, maybe my pocketbook needs a rest from the endless stream of GBV that keeps drawing me in! Bob doesn't seem to be disbanding the group because of any erosion over time of his idiosyncratically brilliant tunesmithing and songcrafting skills, if this CD is any indication.
