Collection: 10. Guided By Voices - Bee Thousand

Forget lo-fi. Though often cited as the defining album of the misleading faux-genre, there's a lot more to Bee Thousand than tape hiss. At its core, this record is one of the most unique and inventive pop records ever made; the best and brightest hooks from rock's golden age filtered through a fractured and kaleidoscopic vision of hardcore UFOs, hot freaks, and robot boys. As an album, Bee Thousand can barely contain itself. The numbers are striking enough-- Robert Pollard and his Dayton cronies plow through 20 songs in a mere 36 minutes. But what's really amazing is just how many good ideas Pollard manages to cram into the album's slender frame. While many songwriters are content to beat a single strong hook to death, Pollard approaches his songs like an excited child, working through a single idea with unabashed enthusiasm and then eagerly moving on to the next. The fact that this record was recorded in a basement rather than a studio seems entirely essential to the album's epic and unforgettable nature. With more and more overproduced studio artifacts from the mid-90s sounding painfully dated, Bee Thousand still seems vibrant, relevant, and timeless. --Matt LeMay / Pitchfork.com