Guided By Voices have been making records for 15 years, refining their fun,

identifiable rock sound, a guitar-based formula that was born in the basement but

makes occasional leaps toward stadium grandeur. Robert Pollard, the Ohio band's

vocalist, main songwriter and only consistent member, has an energetic,

Anglo-accented singing style and a way with suggestive words and

phrases—1part blender fabrication, part genius. After emerging with, and

then becoming pigeonholed by, a lo-fi aesthetic—1something the band has said

was due more to circumstance than a love for tape hiss—1GBV have made a few

notable attempts to harness the energy of their best, modestly recorded albums,

such as Bee Thousand (1994), and offer a real rock presentation that might

actually get played on the radio. Under The Bushes, Under The Stars (1996),

produced by Breeder Kim Deal, moved in that direction, but Pollard's songs didn't

have the polish and refinement to compete. With even more unfinished songs, a

lower-than-average number of great hooks and diminishing contributions from

Pollard's foil Tobin Sprout, the band's last album, Mag Earwhig!, fell

flat.

Enter Ric Ocasek, former leader of the Cars. Given the current homogenous sound

of alternative-rock radio, the songs on Do The Collapse might be a tough

sell to programmers, but that's a good thing for fans: the songs boast a studio

sheen without shedding too much of GBV's distinct sound. The best cuts here boast

beginnings, middles and ends, they have choruses you'll be singing in the shower,

and they sound like a million bucks. Ocasek might not be responsible for Pollard

writing endings to his songs, and some of the new-wavey keyboards seem more

tangential than integral, but there's no denying the Cars-man's way with

knob-twiddling. Album opener "Teenage FBI" (RealAudio excerpt) finds Pollard in the role of the

perennial introverted teen (never mind that he could be a co-ed's dad) as he

belts out lines like "Someone tell me why I act like a fool when things don't go

my way/ When you're around me, I'm somebody else" over a rugged bed of keyboards

and a fiery shower of guitar chords from Doug Gillard, this album's secret

weapon. When Pollard delves into power ballad territory on "Hold On Hope" (RealAudio excerpt), Ocasek

is right there with melancholy organ tones, and Gillard with his bluesy,

teary-eyed lead. And Pollard's growing up, too: a string section fleshes out the

somber "Wrecking Now" (RealAudio excerpt)

It's not as though there aren't any weak links, and fans accustomed to a bit more diversity will feel Sprout's absence. But Do The Collapse at least marks an evolution of GBV's reverential, dyed-in-the-wool rock sound, and at most it proffers a handful of songs that'll stay with you for years.