10. Earthquake Glue (2003)

It took them 15 years, but Guided By Voices finally made a stadium record worthy of Cheap Trick. This is the purest form of Guided By Voices’ “arena-rock” years, a big, polished, tightly constructed beast of a record that is too damn catchy to be hated, even by the lowest of the lo-fi purists. “Useless Inventions” is the pinnacle of post-grunge, the best song the Foo Fighters never made (that’s a compliment). The vaguely new wave “Mix Up The Satellite” provides a glimpse of what Do The Collapse could have been. And if Pollard was ten years younger and had a face like Rob Thomas, “The Best Of Jill Hives” could’ve been a perennial TRL favorite. It’s like an alternate history of the ’90s where the bands had heart to go with their gelled hair and expensive music videos. It’s too bad Guided By Voices didn’t release this when they had a distribution deal with the major label TVT in the late ’90s. They might’ve taken over the world after all.