Album Info

Isolation Drills

Rock - 2001

Each Guided By Voices release emphasizes a different aspect of the quirky combo's quest for perfect power pop. This Rob... more

Tracklist

1

Fair Touching

3:07 min
2

Skills Like This

2:47 min
3

Chasing Heather Crazy

2:53 min
4

Frostman

0:55 min
5

Twilight Campfighter

3:07 min
6

Sister I Need Wine

1:40 min
7

Want One?

1:48 min
8

Enemy

4:53 min
9

Unspirited

2:25 min
10

Glad Girls

3:49 min
11

Run Wild

3:48 min
12

Pivotal Film

3:10 min
13

How's My Drinking?

2:38 min
14

Brides Have Hit Glass

2:51 min
15

Fine to See You

3:16 min
16

Privately

4:03 min

About Isolation Drills

Each Guided By Voices release emphasizes a different aspect of the quirky combo's quest for perfect power pop. This Rob Schnapf-produced gem pumps up the guitars and turns the band's often lo-fi jangle into a hi-tech sonic crunch. Singer Robert Pollard is nearly trampled by the furious riffage and chunky guitar chords that come screaming in full-scale stereo. Hiding underneath the attack, Pollard continues to amaze with his inexhaustible library of classic pop melodies and contagious Brit-pop enthusiasm. Not bad for a former schoolteacher from Ohio. The album begins in particularly brawny fashion. "Fair Touching" and "Skills Like This" slide towards '70s power-pop hard rockers Cheap Trick in terms of obvious influences before lightening up just a tad for the layered swooning of "Chasing Heather Crazy." The 55 seconds of "Frostman" recall the band's casual whimsical days — that Pollard never abandoned but puts on hold here. One hesitates to call this a step towards maturity — there's always a childlike wonder blowing through these sweet blasts — but tracks such as "Twilight Campfighter" and "Glad Girls" and even the near prog-rock of "The Enemy" are brought to their full potential.