Alien Lanes is the eighth full-length album by American lo-fi band Guided by Voices, released on April 4, 1995. The album was GBV's first release with Matador Records. According to James Greer's book Guided by Voices: A Brief History: Twenty-One Years of Hunting Accidents in the Forests of Rock and Roll the advance for the record was close to a hundred thousand dollars, one of the more expensive deals in Matador's history. In contrast to the lucrative deal, Greer mentions that "The cost for recording Alien Lanes, if you leave out the beer, was about ten dollars."

Reception

In a contemporary review of Alien Lanes, Matt Diehl of Rolling Stone described the album's music as "hooky rock that infuses songwriting smarts and a love of melody with a sometimes spiky, sometimes whimsical sense of experimentation". Caroline Sullivan of The Guardian gave the album a positive review, stating that "Pollard's songs are gems that stay just this side of self-conscious eccentricity". Sullivan noted the songs' lengths, stating that they were "just enough time for Pollard to wheeze a few oblique lines and guitarist Tobin Sprout to trace out a raucous melody." Robert Christgau of The Village Voice was less complimentary, giving the album a "dud" rating.

Legacy

Mark Deming of AllMusic described Alien Lanes as being similar to Bee Thousand, although without "as many obvious masterpieces" and "fewer obvious mistakes." Pitchfork placed Alien Lanes at No. 27 on its list of the "Top 100 Albums of the 1990s". Magnet named it the best album of 1995. The album was included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

Track listing

All songs written by Robert Pollard unless otherwise noted.

Personnel

Guided by Voices

Additional personnel

Technical

Cover versions

Tracks from the album have been covered by various artists since its release. These include: