Search - Guided By Voices :: Vampire on Titus

Yet but wait!

W. M. Davidson | St. Louis, MO | 08/10/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"On Guided by Voices' "Propeller" album, Robert Pollard sang, "we conjure ghosts." On "Vampire on Titus" he actually does. Melodies materialize out of ominous white noise, shamble about for a few seconds, then dissipate again. "Vampire"'s structure is similar to "Bee Thousand" and "Alien Lanes," but it is weirder, darker, and less accessible. That is its strength though; as another reviewer said, even after hundreds of listens, this album still has the power to surprise, perplex, and disturb.



The other GBV albums mentioned above are better starting points for the band's lo-fi era, but you may find yourself, as I have, coming back to the shadowy "Vampire on Titus" most often.



To Bob (and Tobin) be the glory."

The Beginning of It All

judascat | Cambridge, MA United States | 02/24/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Looking at the history of Guided by Voices, Vampire on Titus was the first in a string of four albums to really capture the sound that the GBV purist has been after ever since. Most of us outside the Dayton, Ohio rock scene didn't discover the band until 1993's Bee Thousand, an album which was an incredible blend of uplifting songs that were instantly catchy but fleetingly brief. Vampire on Titus is a much darker album than the three that would follow (Propeller, Bee Thousand and Alien Lanes) and it's brilliance is often overlooked. I consider it to be much like the Stones' Beggars Banquet, an album that was the start of a string of albums that captured a sound that marked the band's high point. Although Beggars Banquet is considered by some to be the Stones finest, the same cannot be said of GBV's Vampire on Titus. I would never recommend a newcomer begin with Vampire on Titus, but instead listen to it after digesting Propeller, Bee Thousand and Alien Lanes. There are some gems here, to be sure!!"

Flowing-just like the days of early GBV

S. R Robertson | Oh Henry? | 04/13/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"GBV has always been a sailor into the depths of confused and hallucinatory imagery melted down into its spectral essence, and Vampire On Titus represents the earliest stages of their 'unstable journey'. About half of the tracks have the worst sound production they've ever recorded, but also posess some of the most coherent and intellectual lyrics ("Dusted", "Wished I Was A Giant", "Unstable Journey", etc). Meantime, the rest have the trademark lofi medium, shifting between beautiful ballads of melancholy august ("Gleemer", "Jar Of Cardinals", "Wondering Boy Poet") and creppy lapses into nightmarish lost thought ("E-5", "What About It?", "#2 In The Model Home Series", etc). This album is also the shortest of their albums, but that hardly means a thing in their universe...say Fertile Jim, shall we contemplate existence?"