Ten songs makes an album for any other band, but for Guided By Voices, it's just something they whipped out of their asses in twelve seconds. As usual, this ass-whipping is sheer brilliance.

As with most EPs, it's more of a compilation than a record-as-a-whole, so some songs don't quite fit in. "Beekeeper Seeks Ruth" might have fit a little better on Alien Lanes, "Canteen Plumb" is Bee Thousand material if I've ever heard it, and not- typically- the- songwriter Jim Greer's piece, "Trendspotter Acrobat" sounds like a cover of a Breeders song. (Not surprisingly, Kim Deal is like this [cross middle and index fingers] with the band having produced a few songs on Under The Bushes, Under The Stars and the terrific "Cocksoldiers and Their Postwar Stubble" on Sunfish Holy Breakfast.")

However, "Stabbing a Star" and "If We Wait," two songs taken from previous seven inches, are better than getting blown. "Jabberstroker" is beauteous, as are the rockings-out of "A Contest Featuring Human Beings" and "Heavy Metal Country."

As always, if you're not a GBV fan yet, you should start with Bee Thousand, but as for the diehard Pollard- Sprout maniac, you've got to have it.

-Ryan Schreiber