Guided By Voices - Half Smiles of the Decomposed (14 tracks) +Album Reviews

Their Biggest Win

A Listener | 08/24/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This album is fine. It is very good. It is their best record this

year. I know it. You know it. Anderton know it, Janus Pan know it, Cle

know it, angazos know it. Those other guys know it too. Pantleggs, he

know it. Rev know it. LARM definitely know it. Even Larry know it. WWBD

know it more than anybody. They all like the GbV band the best out of

anybody."

A Fine Farewell

Charles Sikkenga | Grand Haven, MI USA | 09/24/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"If, as claimed, this truly is the last GBV record, at least they're going out on a high note. If not quite the classic some hoped for, its still in the upper-echelon of GBV records, no small achievement from a band that puts out product on a seemingly bi-monthly basis.

As on most GBV releases, there's a certain amount of filler and half-realized experiments, but Robert Pollard and company maintain a reasonably high batting average, with several tunes entering the canon of GBV classics. Rockers like "Everybody Thinks I'm a Raincloud (When I'm Not Looking)," "Girls of Wild Strawberries," and "The Closets of Henry" meet all the minimum requirements for hook-laced pop genius while "Windows of My World" and "Tour Guide at the Winston Churchill Memorial" show Pollard progressing as a songwriter, finally able to nail the killer ballads that have just eluded him over the years.

Best of all is the closing track "Huffman Prarie Flying Field." Its starts off with one last unbelievably catchy GBV melody and drives forward from there. Listening you keep waiting for the killer chorus to arrive until, like so many Pollard's best tunes, about two minutes in you realize the whole song is just one big chorus. In the last minute, the songs shifts directions into a type of coda that manages to be elegiac and celebretory all at once. In a fitting gesture, former guitarist and secondary songwriter Tobin Sprout returns on guitar for the tune, bringing the band's oddysey full circle and providing a fitting sense of closure. If GBV's career were ever made into a movie, this would be a fitting track to play over the closing credits.

All in all, if not quite "Bee Thousand" or "Alien Lanes," "Half Smiles is a memorable farewell, filled with moments of sublime beauty."

A Final Salute To The Greatest Band Ever

Joe T. | Toronto, Ontario | 09/04/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"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

George a Pletz | Central PA, USA | 08/05/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"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...

Micah Newman | Fort Worth, TX United States | 10/15/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"...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."

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