Half Smiles Of The Decomposed [Digipak]

Performer: Guided by Voices
Engineer: Todd Tobias
Producer: Todd Tobias; Guided By Voices; Todd Tobias
Distributor: Alternative Dis. Alliance

Notes: Guided by Voices: Chris Slusarenko, Doug Gillard, Robert Pollard, Kevin March, Nate Farley. Personnel: Tobin Sprout (guitar). Additional personnel: Todd Tobias (sound effects); Tobin Sprout. Audio Mixer: Todd Tobias. Recording information: Waterloo Sound, Kent, OH (12/2003). Photographer: Sarah Zade. Unknown Contributor Roles: Tony Conley; Rob Phillips. At the time of HALF SMILES OF THE DECOMPOSED's release in 2004, Guided By Voices ringleader Robert Pollard claimed that it would be the long-running indie band's last record. While the album's artwork (particularly the back cover's telltale sunset photo) reinforces the sense of finality, the music here plays to the strengths that GBV has developed since the group's 1994 breakthrough, BEE THOUSAND, offering up quirky lyrics and catchy riffs aplenty. "Everybody Thinks I'm a Raincloud (When I'm Not Looking)" begins the send-off with surging guitars that allow Pollard to slide comfortably into rock-star mode, while "Sleep Over Jack" is an angular, New Wave-esque track that sports vocal samples echoing the muffled interjections on the Beatles' "Yellow Submarine." Although many other latter-day GBV outings focused almost exclusively on amped-up electric guitars, HALF SMILES features more prominent acoustic guitar playing, particularly on the dreamy jangle-pop of "Girls of Wild Strawberries" and the gloriously Who-like "Window of My World." By the time Bob Pollard repeatedly sings the refrain "for far too long" to close the song "Huffman Prairie Flying Field," the album itself, and, apparently, the rock entity known as Guided By Voices, it's clear he's not kidding around about this ending. It's one hell of a swan song.

Rolling Stone (p.79) - 3 1/2 stars out of 5 - "[I]t's packed to bursting with sometimes inscrutable pleasures: melodies with the whiff of half-remembered classics..." Uncut (p.104) - 3 stars out of 5 - "[With] driving fuzz-pop, fat hooks, urgent choruses..." Alternative Press (p.134) - 3 out of 5 - "[Pollard's] finally come stumbling home." Magnet (p.105) - "The anthems here are recorded to sound like rooftop shots, while the ballads are among the finest Pollard has crafted..." Magnet (p.66) - Ranked #6 in Magnet's "The 20 Best Albums Of 2004" - "Before lo-fi became a style, it was the logical byproduct of a torrent of songs recorded in bursts of beery energy." CMJ (p.4) - "The band gives closure to its 19-year college rock sovereignty and doesn't let it signature bittersweet cynicism leak past the last track." Mojo (Publisher) (p.98) - 3 stars out of 5 - "[I]ts great songs are prime Pollard..."

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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