If Guided By Voices had released Do the Collapse in the early '90s,
their cultish fans would have been screaming "Sellout!" from chord one.
After a decade of DIY basement fuzzrock, suddenly everyone's favorite
ex-substitute teachers have finally released a highly polished bit of
unabashed hi-fi and have gone on the record (in Billboard Magazine no
less) as being ready to conquer FM radio. This would have been cause
for excommunication six years ago, but everything's changed now. After
the demise of the untenable "indie rock" genre and the uprising of
technologically sophisticated hip-hop and electro, lo-fi has gone from
a movement to a gimmick (just ask the All-Stars), and no one's really
all that worried about taking down The Man with a well-written single.
Unless they wear prosthetic boobs or disfigure themselves onstage while
singing it.

But the motley band from Dayton has never been interested in shock, so
in our post-Foo Fighters era, they're finally free to slick up all they
like. And slick it up they have, right down to hiring Ric Ocasek to
produce their first outing on TVT (a label which is even nominally
indie, if you care). The evidence is all over the record. Don't read
too much into the fact that the fantastically catchy single "Teenage
FBI" opens like the best of the Cars and should be on the soundtrack of
Square Pegs: The Movie; give a listen to the rest of the CD and GBV's
harmonic, hooky-as-hell R.E.M./Beatlemania is still in effect. It just
sounds a lot cooler now that you realize there are instrumental layers
and some very very smart synthesizer work going on. Forgive them that
"In Stitches" sounds a little like Foreigner and "Hold on Hope" would
do the Goo Goo Dolls proud. Everyone's entitled to one or two off notes
on an LP of 16 full songs, most of which evince the kind of veteran
poise that Eve 6 and the Counting Crows would wet themselves for. But
then don't take our word for it -- now that they've finally put their
heart into it, there's no chance you won't be hearing at least one of
these new tracks on that FM dial soon.