The Finest Joke is Upon Us

While Bee Thousand and Alien Lanes are understandably seen by most as high water marks for Guided by Voices, I think songs like "The Finest Joke is Upon Us" are proof that the two albums that followed -- Under the Bushes, Under the Stars and Mag Earwhig! -- are really the product of Robert Pollard's strongest period. Both albums have their standouts, but each is uniformly great in an ambitious way that their two predecessors, while fantastic in their own ways, were not.

"The Finest Joke..." is a great chugging rocker with strong hooks, a song that sounds like a better fit with UTBUTS than with this more arena-rock sounding ME! Pollard seems to include a self-critique within the lyrics, singing, "It's a long song and I can't play it so give me a pick now collector of bones," surely not commenting on the fact that GBV songs were growing longer (for the first time since Same Place the Fly Got Smashed, and not counting the medley of "Over the Neptune/Mesh Gear Fox" on Propeller, a song topped the four-minute mark here).

Regardless, Pollard's songwriting is at a peak here, taking a fairly pedestrian two-chord chugger and making it a compelling track little more than melody and words. He offers some great images here, including the one that gives the song it's title:

Worlds of smoke
Distorted, mirror broken
Paradise is open but I choke
One of these days when I see through the smoke
There'll be the day I get the joke