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Album Details

• Artist: Guided By Voices
• Album: Human Amusement At Hourly Rates
• Label: Matador
• Year of Release: 2003
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: dscanland on 2004-01-28

As Guided By Voices sing "The club is open" on the opener "A Salty Salute" you realize just how long Pollard and his crew have been around. The club has been open since they released Devil Between My Toes back in 1987 but it wasn't until 1994's seminal Bee Thousand when GBV started their relationship with Matador records. Now we all know that Guided By Voices is good for some good tunes but they aren't overly known for complete albums. Besides Bee Thousand and Mag Earwhig and arguably 2003's Earthquake Glue there is hardly a complete album worthy of owning for it's entirety unless you are a hardcore fan. So it is without further adieu that Matador announces the availability of the first ever Guided By Voices compilation. Now I could go into songs like "I Am A Tree" or one of my favorite GBV songs, "Glad Girls" and how good they are but if you are reading this your probably know all about those songs. If not, then Human Amusement may just be for you. It's got a whopping 32 tracks on it, culling from not only their Matador releases but their two TVT albums as well. It's like a treat for hardcore fans too to have all of the best GBV tracks on one collection. I have pretty much done away with all my other Guided By Voices albums and replaced them with this one (except the two albums mentioned earlier). I should mention that this is basically the companion set to the complete box set, Hardcore UFOs: Revelations, Epiphanies and Fast Food in the Western Hemisphere. That's only for completists and people who are just trying to look cool. It's too massive for the occasional fan like myself. I'll take the briefer Human Amusement thank you very much.

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