The Best of...

Whenever anyone asks which GBV CD to buy, I usually scratch my head and suggest Bee Thousand or Alien Lanes. Those two seemed to have the largest number of good songs. And that's the rub: There's always two or three blow-your-head-off miracle rockers on any GBV album, but the rest are either so-so or leave you wondering how much beer was consumed during the recording sessions.

Now along comes the band's much needed "Best of" collection (notice that they didn't call it "Greatest Hits"?), a compilation of the finest tracks from GBV's finest albums (most of them released on Matador), including four chestnuts from Bee Thousand, six from Alien Lanes and three apiece from Do the Collapse, Isolation Drills, Mag Earwhig! and Under the Bushes, Under the Stars. The 32-song, 77-minute collection perfectly documents Pollard and Sprout's deification of '60s jingle-jangle Brit-rock and Nuggets-era garage stomp. This is the definitive collection for the casual GBV fan. I can only imagine how it will impact sales of their back catalog.

back to   Posted Nov. 21, 2003. Copyright © 2003 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.