RE:SCORE - Guided By Voices: Do the Collapse (1999)

TOTAL SCORE: 54, AVG: 3.38

Re-reading my original post for Do the Collapse, my feelings about the album haven't really changed. It is a good album that gives us a glimpse of another world where GBV had major-label backing and the production wizardry of the late Ric Ocasek. 1999 saw some great songs from Pollard (and his collaboration with Gillard), and part of the problem of Do the Collapse for me, is that the songs chosen for the album just aren't a great representation of GBV, even if decent on their own merit... 

Though it would not likely happen, I would have loved a studio revisioning of existing GBV tracks, and to hear what songs like Buzzards and Dreadful Crows, Navigating Flood Regions, or Big Boring Wedding would sound like given the treatment on Do the Collapse. I can't imagine someone listening to Hold on Hope (the big single off the album), really digging it, and then somehow turning that into a love for GBV, or any song off of Do the Collapse for that matter. So in the end, Do the Collapse probably didn't complete its objective of growing the GBV fanbase, and instead became a cool what-if scenario that can be enjoyed for what it is by existing fans. 

It is a really solid album, but in a lot of ways it is a mid-tempo middling album as well. This is the year that the blow-up of side-projects and solo albums really took hold, and fans also got Kid Marine, Lexo and the Leapers, and the Pollard/Gillard collaboration Speak Kindly of Your Volunteer Fire Department, so possibly Pollard was spread a bit thin? There is something off and dulled with Do the Collapse, but it is still a good album with some classics within. Here is the updated ranking:

Among Bob's Best

-- none

Gems

01 Teenage FBI

13 Liquid Indian

Almost Gems

02 Zoo Pie

06 Dragons Awake!

07 Surgical Focus

16 An Unmarketed Product

They're Good

03 Things I Will Keep

04 Hold on Hope

08 Optical Hopscotch

09 Mushroom Art

10 Much Better Mr. Buckles

11 Wormhole

12 Strumpet Eye

14 Wrecking Now

15 Picture Me Big Time

They're OK

-- none

Could Live Without

05 In Stiches

Toss-Offs & Throwaways
-- none

Given the scoring above, the album would get 54 points total (and an average of 3.38).