11. The Same Place The Fly Got Smashed (1990)

The best of Guided By Voices’ first four releases is also the darkest, most serious album they’ve made yet. This concept album about an angry Midwest alcoholic is a difficult, bracing listen, as the listener is bombarded with the boozy anxieties of a protagonist who may or may not bear a resemblance to Pollard himself. There’s the achingly raw and beautiful “When She Turns 50,” which wouldn’t sound out of place on an early Elliott Smith record, where the hero wonders if he’ll still be alive when a woman he knows hits the half-century mark. And on “Drinker’s Peace,” Pollard captures both the comfort and the destructiveness of alcoholism, describing how it makes his felonies feel more like misdemeanors. It’s a shockingly candid record from a man whose stage presence is distinguished by a tendency to consume copious amounts of alcohol. What this says about Pollard the man is not for us to judge. The primary thing proven by thing The Same Place The Fly Got Smashed is that Pollard’s normally esoteric lyrics can also be direct and devastating.