Guided By Voices: Wish in One Hand... (1997)

TOTAL SCORE: 9, AVG: 3.00

The Wish in One Hand EP contains an older version of Teenage FBI, prior to it being a more polished single from 1999's Do the Collapse. Recorded with Jim Pollard, Nick Shuld, and Kevin Fennell, Robert Pollard was "between bands" at this time. What I find most interesting when listening to this early version of Teenage FBI is just how much the DNA of Do the Collapse was truly Pollard's...

Do the Collapse would ultimately be a fairly controversial album for Guided By Voices as it is their most polished and produced album; a swing at mainstream success and a huge departure from where they came from. But even in 1997, Teenage FBI is the most accessible and "mainstream" song of Pollard's at this point. It shows that maybe the time was right where Pollard's songwriting was taking on a more general and radio friendly vibe, and working with a producer like Rick Ocasek was going to work well. Mag Earwhig! definitely started moving in that direction with songs like Bulldog Skin, Sad if I Lost It, and Not Behind the Fighter Jet, and Teenage FBI brought it to another level. The production from Ocasek brought things up to another level production-wise for sure, but hearing this early version of Teenage FBI does make me rethink just how much of Do the Collapse's sound and production I attributed to Ocasek versus Pollard. This stripped down version is still pretty cool, but it is all already there, and Ocasek would add the bells and whistles a year or so later.

With Now I'm Crying, even though Pollard almost shrieks out words in a fuzzed-out recording, there are the bones of a straight-up rocker that ultimately doesn't resonate too much with me. Real is a frolicking pop track that sounds a bit like pre-Propeller GBV with some great lyrics ("I really like when you unwind/sometimes unraveling into quite a mess/falling apart but from the heart/

temporary drifting out of reach but nonetheless"). That being said, the main draw on Wish in One Hand... is the early version of Teenage FBI.

Here is the ranking of Wish in One Hand...:

Among Bob's Best
-- none

Gems

-- none

Almost Gems

01 Teenage FBI (original version)

They're Good

03 Real

 

They're OK

02 Now I'm Crying

Could Live Without

-- none

Toss-Offs & Throwaways
-- none

Given the scoring above, the album would get 9 points total (and an average of 3.00).