Guided By Voices – Suitcase 3: Up We Go Now
I’m really torn on this. I mean, the wannabe Guided By Voices archivist in me feels a predilection to give this something in the range of a 7.819 to 8.461. Much like the previous Suitcase entries, you get 100 unreleased songs that give you plenty of insight into Robert Pollard’s creative process. And it gives you an appreciation for just how prolific Pollard is, as if averaging five new albums a year does’t accomplish that task on its own.
But unlike the first and second offerings of GBV bric-a-brac, the fourth disc is a live session with Pollard, Tobin Sprout and Greg Demos from around the Bee Thousand/Alien Lanes era, which is arguably the band’s zenith — although you usually won’t hear much argument. So needless to say, that’s a big selling point and something that makes me have to do some pants-changing.
Then the part of me who foolishly thinks he can render some sort of objective opinion (which never happens in the first place) wants to tone down the score. Because, after all, like its predecessors, Suitcase 3 is a collection of rough stuff that didn’t make the cut. And that’s the case for a reason. I mean, you have some real gems showcasing some of Bob’s best work, but there are also plenty of throwaway tracks.
In addition to that fact, the placement and order of the tracks leave plenty to be desired. When you’ve got 5-10 songs, you can get away with a lot in that regard, but when you’re hitting the century mark, it’d be nice to see some semblance — however small — of cohesion.
So I did a nice little Hegelian synthesis of these two diametrically opposed portions of Sean and came up with the score above. It doesn’t make either part of me happy, but at least it makes both of those parts want to get in a bar fight with each other. That’s better than nothing.
