Tuesday, October 27, 2020

RE:SCORE - Guided By Voices: Sunfish Holy Breakfast (1996)

TOTAL SCORE: 36, AVG: 3.60

Looking back at my original posting I was definitely on Team Sunfish Holy Breakfast, and I am still today. An EP with 10 songs (the size of other bands' full albums), Sunfish continues to expand on the 1996 version of a band that just has so much to offer at the time, and it is generally considered essential as far as fans go...

    Some songs fit completely in the sound of the era, such as Cocksoldiers and their Postwar Stubble, Heavy Metal Country, and Canteen Plums; all excellent songs in which we wouldn't have batted an eye if they were part of Under the Bushes Under the Stars or Not in My Airforce. Speaking of Heavy Metal Country, it barely made my playlist when I original reviewed this album, but songs like this I have such a greater appreciation for today . 

    Other tracks are obviously from an earlier era and are now just finding a home. Stabbing a Star is from a couple years prior and would have been more at home on the 1994-era EPs, an If We Wait is an amazing song that I believe is also from around 1993, but maybe it was before its time as GBV caught up with it sonically a couple years later. Then you have Sprout's Jabberstroker and Greer's unique Trendsetter Acrobat, and Sunfish Holy Breakfast does what great companion EPs do; it is the other side of the coin to Under the Bushes Under the Stars and shares some diversions that didn't quite fit. Here is the updated ranking:

    Among Bob's Best
    -- none

    Gems
    07 If We Wait
    10 Heavy Metal Country

    Almost Gems
    01 Jabberstroker
    03 Canteen Plums
    05 Cocksoldiers and their Postwar Stubble
    08 Trendsetter Acrobat

    They're Good
    02 Stabbing a Star
    06 A Contest Featuring Human Beings

    They're OK
    04 Beekeeper Seeks Ruth
    09 The Winter Cows

    Could Live Without
    -- none

    Toss-Offs & Throwaways
    -- none

    Given the scoring above, the album would get 36 points total (and an average of 3.60). 

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