RE:SCORE - Guided By Voices: Under The Bushes Under The Stars (1996)

TOTAL SCORE: 96, AVG: 4.17

When I wrote my original entry for Under The Bushes Under The Stars (UTBUTS) 12 years ago, I called it GBV's greatest album. Therefore, I thought it would be a good one to re-score using my new scoring method (Details can be found here). I figured that it would end up with a slightly higher average score than Boston Spaceship's The Planets Are Blasted (since that is a top notch album as well), but a much higher total score given its 24 tracks versus 14...

That is exactly what happened. UTBUTS is consistently good across a huge track number. My favorite song on the record is the opener Man Called Aerodynamics, and I can't ignore the greatness of Cut-Out Witch, The Official Ironmen Rally Song, and Redmen And Their Wives. GBV fans will probably scoff at my lower ranking for "hits" like Don't Stop Now and To Remake The Young Flyer, or even the fact that I ranked any song on UTBUTS lower than "Good", but overall there is no way to not have UTBUTS on the top, or at least near the top, of any list of GBV's or Robert Pollard's greatest albums.

I also added a new category for tracks I did not want to count or grade such as The Perfect Life. The Perfect Life is an instrumental that is used perfectly to contribute to the tone of the album as a whole, but removed from the album might not have the same effect. Therefore, I am not including it in the average score.

In my previous post on this album, all 24 tracks made the playlist! It is no wonder that I consider so many songs on Under The Bushes Under The Stars to be ranked so high. Here is the updated ranking:

Among Bob's Best
01 Man Called Aerodynamics
03 Cut-Out Witch
05 The Official Ironmen Rally Song
23 Redmen And Their Wives

Gems
10 Your Name Is Wild
15 Underwater Explosions
19 Big Boring Wedding
20 It's Like Soul Man
22 Sheetkickers

Almost Gems
08 Bright Paper Werewolves
09 Lord Of Overstock
12 Acorns & Orioles
16 Atom Eyes
17 Don't Stop Now
21 Drag Days

They're Good
02 Rhine Jive Click

04 Burning Flag Birthday Suit
06 To Remake The Young Flyer
07 No Sky
11 Ghost Of A Different Dream
13 Look At Them
18 Office Of Hearts

They're OK
24 Take To The Sky

Could Live Without
-- none

Toss-Offs & Throwaways
-- none

Not Counting
14 The Perfect Life (it is a short instrumental that fits in perfectly with the album)

Given the scoring above, the album would get 96 points total (and an average of 4.17).