Guided By Voices - Let's Go Eat The Factory

At first listen, Let's Go Eat The Factory—indie rock band Guided By Voices' 2012 release—sounds like any other weird, lo-fi indie album in the world. The short songs actually go together fairly well and talk about everything from doughnuts to kites.

And that's when the album starts to sound like a joke. Doughnuts, kites, dominoes? It almost seems like a cleverly put together prank on indie fans everywhere.

It's hard to take the lyrics and song titles seriously with such content, but the music is the most believable indie music that I've heard in a long time. The juxtaposition of almost expectedly weird-but-cool-lyrics like "Chocolate boy, you fell into the summer" and more serious rhythms makes the album an interesting listen.

With static guitars and soft vocals, the album sounds like a combination of softer Sonic Youth and a less melodic Pavement. Of course, GBV is just a few years younger than Sonic Youth so they are always, no matter how much time passes, going to sound similar. The band brings back that nostalgic, lo-fi sound with Let's Go Eat The Factory.

The album has some ups and downs—fans will enjoy most of the ups, but regular listeners might just find a bunch of downs. For skeptics, it's worth a listen just to try and figure out if the band is being ironic, funny, or actually serious about some of the weird, weird stuff on the album.