Alien Lanes

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[2]
Entertainment Weekly	B+[3]
The Guardian	[4]
Pitchfork	9.2/10[5]
Rolling Stone	[6]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[7]
Spin (1995)	7/10[8]
Spin (2006)	[9]

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".[6] 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".[4] 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."[4] Robert Christgau of The Village Voice was less complimentary, giving the album a "dud" rating.[10]

Mark Deming of AllMusic described Alien Lanes as being similar to Bee Thousand, though without "as many obvious masterpieces" and "fewer obvious mistakes".[2]

Pitchfork included Alien Lanes in their 'Top 100 Albums of the 1990s' polls, at No. 27.[11] Magnet named it the best album of 1995.[12] The album was included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.[13]

All songs written by Robert Pollard unless otherwise noted.

1. "A Salty Salute" (R. Pollard, Tobin Sprout)  – 1:29
2. "Evil Speakers"  – 0:58
3. "Watch Me Jumpstart"  – 2:24
4. "They're Not Witches" (Greg Demos, Jim Pollard, R. Pollard)  – 0:51
5. "As We Go Up, We Go Down"  – 1:37
6. "(I Wanna Be a) Dumbcharger"  – 1:13
7. "Game of Pricks"  – 1:33
8. "The Ugly Vision"  – 1:34
9. "A Good Flying Bird" (Sprout)  – 1:07
10. "Cigarette Tricks" (Demos, J. Pollard, R. Pollard, Sprout)  – 0:18
11. "Pimple Zoo"  – 0:42
12. "Big Chief Chinese Restaurant" (J. Pollard, R. Pollard)  – 0:56
13. "Closer You Are"  – 1:56
14. "Auditorium" (R. Pollard, Sprout)  – 1:02
15. "Motor Away" (R. Pollard, Sprout)  – 2:06
16. "Hit"  – 0:23
17. "My Valuable Hunting Knife"  – 2:00
18. "Gold Hick"  – 0:30
19. "King and Caroline" (R. Pollard, Sprout)  – 1:36
20. "Striped White Jets"  – 2:15
21. "Ex-Supermodel" (R. Pollard, Sprout)  – 1:06
22. "Blimps Go 90"  – 1:40
23. "Strawdogs" (Sprout)  – 1:17
24. "Chicken Blows"  – 2:21
25. "Little Whirl" (Sprout)  – 1:46
26. "My Son Cool"  – 1:41
27. "Always Crush Me"  – 1:44
28. "Alright"  – 2:56

Guided by Voices

• Robert Pollard – vocals, guitar, drums, percussion (track 17), keys (track 10)
• Tobin Sprout – vocals (tracks 9, 23, 25), guitar, bass, drums, percussion, piano (tracks 8, 27)
• Jim Pollard – bass
• Mitch Mitchell – guitar, bass
• Kevin Fennell – drums, percussion
• Jim Greer – bass, backing vocals (track 5)
• Greg Demos – bass, guitar (tracks 4, 12), violin (track 22)

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

• "Game of Pricks", covered by American pop punk bands Magnapop from the German version of their album Mouthfeel and A Sunny Day In Glasgow on their The Sunniest Day Ever EP. Jimmy Eat World released a version on the deluxe edition of Bleed American. Chinese Telephones recorded the song for a 7" single and it was later included on their Democracy compilation. "Game of Pricks" was also covered by the English post-Grunge band My Vitriol. Musician Owen Pallett recorded "Game of Pricks" in June 2010 for The A.V. Club's A.V. Undercover series. Brooklyn band Shark? covered the same song as a B-Side on their 2014 single "Big Summer(Summer Ale)." [14]
• "My Valuable Hunting Knife" was covered by Motion City Soundtrack. The song was also covered by Planningtorock as a bonus track on her album W.
• Opener "A Salty Salute" was covered by both industrial artist Kompressor and New York City band The Strokes.
• Four songs from Alien Lanes appeared on the cover album Sing For Your Meat: A Tribute to Guided By Voices: "A Salty Salute", covered by Superdrag, "My Valuable Hunting Knife", covered by Western Civ, "Game of Pricks", covered by Lou Barlow, and "Watch Me Jumpstart", covered by La Sera.
• Four of the tracks were covered by experimental band Wreck and Reference and released as a short album titled "Alien Pains", published by the Flenser.[15]