While 1992's Propeller is the band's fifth album, it's really their first. In terms of reach, and power, this is the one where Robert Pollard took the serum and turned into a superhero of indie. Frankly, he's been doing this so long, so well, that's his career has spanned the terms college rock, alternative, indie, lo-fi, and DIY. It's all that, never more so than on the rough-but-brilliant Propeller by Guided By Voices, reissued in fine fashion again by the folks at Scat Records.
While opener "Over the Neptune / Mesh Gear Fox" seems longer and more unfocused than most of the GBV stuff we love, the rest of Proller rocks with the tight precision that first made us fans. "Metal Mothers" is all crunchy riffs and fuzzy guitars, while "Lethargy" is louder still. This one, and "Ergo Space Pig" almost have a bit of American harDCore about them. Robert Pollard here in 1992 was sharpening his approach, favoring attacks that were both rough and still pop-infused. "Exit Flagger", perhaps the best-known selection on this record, roars but it snaps with purpose, and remains a catchy masterpiece. It's on this one and lyrical closer "On the Tundra" that we hear the sound of GBV that would be refined further on Bee Thousand (1994) not long after this.
Still, there's more to enjoy on Propeller beyond hearing the band work out their hook-infused sound. "Back to Saturn X Radio Report" features snippets of many cuts -- "Damn Good, Mr. Jam!", "Buzzards and Dreadful Crows (Different Version)", among others -- that would turn up elsewhere, or had already, in this era. It's an experimental track, and thus a rarity on what's a fairly straightforward release. Propeller is lo-fi but it sounds superb again, clear and crisp and full of promise. I think there were decades where I could say that about almost any Guided By Voices offering, and perhaps never more than about this early album where the players who'd continue to thrill us in the Nineties -- Robert Pollard, Mitch Mitchell, Tobin Sprout, Greg Demos, and others -- were cranking up their brand of American DIY power-pop and hitting at something special they'd revisit again and again as Pollard's muse allowed it.
Propeller is out now via Scat Records.
More details on Guided By Voices via the official website.
[Photo: Glenn Griffith, me, 2019]