An Unmarketed Product

"An Unmarketed Product" is a concise little blast of power-chords and drums at the end of Do the Collapse. It doesn't exactly fit, but it's an interesting raw coda to Guided by Voices' most-produced album. One might expect that it's another self-referential tune from the pen of Robert Pollard, a thinly veiled commentary on his band's music. A close look at the lyrics, however, seems to suggest that Pollard is actually referring to a product in a store. "How do these things come in to our lives so obtrusively? Why do they change their prices so accordingly?"

Musically it's the kind of riff that Doug Gillard can toss off in his sleep, with the rest of the band in lockstep beside him. Pollard likely came up with the lyrics on the fly (if not, he shouldn't tell anyone). It's a bracing injection of energy that nicely reinvigorates the listener as the album closes, but it offers little more than that.