My Top 1000 Songs #829: The Best Of Jill Hives

[I've been writing up my Top 1000 songs on a daily basis--you can see them all in descending order by hitting the All My Favorite Songs tag.]

By the time of 2003's Earthquake Glue, Guided By Voices were approaching the tail end of their initial run--the following LP would be their last (until, after a 6-year sabbatical, they'd return even more prolific than before). And the declining wheat-to-chaff ratio on their records, which could be rough even on their best work, was getting frustrating. Yet Robert Pollard could still toss off an effortless-sounding slice of pop perfection when the mood struck him, coming up with something as delightful as "The Best Of Jill Hives." Like the best of Pollard's work, there's a ridiculously catchy melody (in this case, relatively well-produced by GbV standards, with a bouncing bassline and ear-catching reverb), tethered to lyrics which are utterly meaningless yet somehow pierced through with random profundity. "I don't know where you find your nerve. I don't know how you choose your words." Me neither, but I'm fine with it.

Live:

Pretty faithful cover from a tribute album (by Patches):

Random cover by a German acoustic duo:

Another nifty cover: