Isolation Drills

A New York studio record of sad, introspective songs, and the band's first on the Billboard 200.
Guided by Voices, 2001

Released
10 April 2001
Recorded
2000
Studio
Loho Studios, New York
Label
TVT
Producer
Rob Schnapf
Length
47:12

Play on hypersongs

Recorded at Loho Studios on the Lower East Side and mixed at Greene Street Recording in Soho, with Doug Boehm engineering. Pollard said Schnapf was more like the band, more blue collar, and that he knew TVT wanted singles, so he made sure to have a couple. Elliott Smith, a friend of Schnapf's who was in New York on tour, played piano, as did Tobin Sprout. Working titles included North Morning Silver Trip and Freak Anthem. All sixteen songs are by Robert Pollard.

Chasing Heather Crazy and Glad Girls were the singles. Pitchfork's Matt LeMay called it the band's most mature and darkly sophisticated record, and it holds their highest Metacritic score, 83. Stereogum ranked it seventh among their albums. The cover was later linked, by accident, with the attacks of 11 September, five months after release. A remastered double LP marked its 20th anniversary in 2021.

Track listing

  1. Fair Touching3:07
  2. Skills Like This2:47
  3. Chasing Heather Crazy2:53
  4. Frostman0:55
  5. Twilight Campfighter3:07
  6. Sister I Need Wine1:40
  7. Want One?1:48
  8. The Enemy4:53
  9. Unspirited2:25
  10. Glad Girls3:49
  11. Run Wild3:48
  12. Pivotal Film3:10
  13. How's My Drinking?2:38
  14. The Brides Have Hit Glass2:51
  15. Fine to See You3:16
  16. Privately4:05

Personnel

More from Guided by Voices

Bee Thousand (1994), Alien Lanes (1995), I Am a Scientist / Tractor Rape Chain (30th Anniversary Versions) (2024)

Sources

  1. Isolation Drills, Wikipedia
  2. Isolation Drills, GBVDB
  3. Isolation Drills turns 20, Stereogum (2021)
  4. A conversation with Robert Pollard, Eye Weekly (Stuart Berman) (2001-02-15)
  5. Isolation Drills, Pitchfork (2001)