Alien Lanes

Untitled

Alien Lanes is a 1995 (see 1995 in music) album by lo-fi band Guided by Voices, their eighth full length album.

Pitchfork Media included Alien Lanes in their 'Top 100 Albums of the 90s' polls, at No. 27. Magnet named it the best album of 1995.

The album was GBV's first release with Matador Records. According to James Greer's book Guided by Voices: A Brief History: Twenty-One Years of Hunting Accidents in the Forests of Rock and Roll the advance for the record was close to a hundred thousand dollars, one of the more expensive deals in Matador's history. In contrast to the lucrative deal, Greer mentions that "The cost for recording Alien Lanes, if you leave out the beer, was about ten dollars."

Track listing

All songs written by Robert Pollard unless otherwise noted.

1. "A Salty Salute" (R. Pollard, Tobin Sprout) – 1:29
2. "Evil Speakers" – :58
3. "Watch Me Jumpstart" – 2:24
4. "They're Not Witches" (Greg Demos, Jim Pollard, R. Pollard) – :51
5. "As We Go Up, We Go Down" – 1:37
6. "(I Wanna Be a) Dumbcharger" – 1:13
7. "Game of Pricks" – 1:33
8. "The Ugly Vision" – 1:34
9. "A Good Flying Bird" (Sprout) – 1:07
10. "Cigarette Tricks" (Demos, J. Pollard, R. Pollard, Sprout) – :18
11. "Pimple Zoo" – :42
12. "Big Chief Chinese Restaurant" (J. Pollard, R. Pollard) – :56
13. "Closer You Are" – 1:56
14. "Auditorium" (R. Pollard, Sprout) – 1:02
15. "Motor Away" (R. Pollard, Sprout) – 2:06
16. "Hit" – :23
17. "My Valuable Hunting Knife" – 2:00
18. "Gold Hick" – :30
19. "King and Caroline" (R. Pollard, Sprout) – 1:36
20. "Striped White Jets" – 2:15
21. "Ex-Supermodel" (R. Pollard, Sprout) – 1:06
22. "Blimps Go 90" – 1:40
23. "Strawdogs" (Sprout) – 1:17
24. "Chicken Blows" – 2:21
25. "Little Whirl" (Sprout) – 1:46
26. "My Son Cool" – 1:41
27. "Always Crush Me" – 1:44
28. "Alright" – 2:56

Reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic
Robert Christgau
Rolling Stone

Mark Deming of Allmusic feels the record is similar to Bee Thousand, though without "as many obvious masterpieces" and "fewer obvious mistakes". Matt Diehl in a 1995 review in Rolling Stone described the album's music as "hooky rock that infuses songwriting smarts and a love of melody with a sometimes spiky, sometimes whimsical sense of experimentation".

Cover versions

Tracks from the album have been covered by various artists since its release. These include:

• "Game of Pricks", covered by American pop punk bands Magnapop from the German version of their album Mouthfeel and Jimmy Eat World released on the deluxe edition of Bleed American. "Game of Pricks" was also covered by British post-Grunge band, My Vitriol.
• "My Valuable Hunting Knife" was covered by Motion City Soundtrack.
• Opener "A Salty Salute" was covered by New York City band The Strokes.