Hold on Hope [EP] [EP] [Limited]

Performer: Guided by Voices
Distributor: TVT Records (Dist.)

Notes: HOLD ON HOPE is a limited edition EP of 5000. Guided By Voices: Robert Pollard, Doug Gillard, Jim MacPherson, Greg Demos, Nate Farley, Tim Tobias. Producers include: Ric Ocasek. The title tune, of course, is GBV's (admittedly twisted) version of an arena ballad, as well as one of the standout numbers on the band's brilliant Ric Ocasek-produced DO THE COLLAPSE. The rest of the material (with three exceptions that sound like they were done on the group's beloved four-track recorder) comprises Ocasek productions from the COLLAPSE sessions that didn't make the final cut. Most of them are a lot better than throwaways. "Interest Position," for example, is a moody minor-key song drenched in distorted guitar, with frontman Robert Pollard's harmonies sounding more serenely Byrds-ish than ever. "Fly Into Ashes," one of the non-Ocasek tracks, has a slightly skewed British Invasion feel that conjures up an alternative universe where the Rutles are a real band. "A Crick Uphill" begins as a pastoral McCartney-esque trifle a la THE WHITE ALBUM and suddenly morphs into the loudest song on the album, with wave after wave of metallic guitars. And "Do the Collapse," which has no vocals at all but is otherwise thoroughly hooky, is apparently the spine of a song Pollard never got around to finishing; if you have a four-track at home, feel free to write your own lyrics and overdub yourself singing them.

Led by former school teacher Robert Pollard, Dayton, OH's Guided By Voices pursued an aesthetic marked by structural brevity, lo-fi sound, bizarre lyrics, and a preference for early to mid-period Who and other primal pop-rock. Pollard continually shifted the group's lineup, with a new outfit backing him on nearly every record. On 1999's DO THE COLLAPSE, GBV polished its sound considerably, bringing in Ric Ocasek as a producer. GBV played their final show on New Year's Eve 2004, however Pollard continues to write and record as a solo artist and with various collaborators.

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