Sandbox (Guided by Voices album)

Editors at AllMusic rated this album 2 out of 5 stars, with critic Brian Egan writing that the band "took a short step back" from their previous album and that the songs "ultimately fail to register".[1] Byron Coley of Spin pointed to the work on Sandbox to declare that Guided by Voices is "one of the sharpest sounding angle-pop bands out of the Midwest since the days of Green".[2] In that publication's 1995 album guide, they rated Sandbox a 1 out of 5, stating that the band deviated from their lo-fi music roots after performing with R.E.M.[3]

Frontman Robert Pollard called this album "an attempt to make a huge power-pop record for less than a thousand dollars" in 1995 and journalist David Sprague reported that this album was painful for him to listen to.[4]

1. "Lips of Steel" (Kevin Fennell, Mitch Mitchell, and Jim Pollard) – 1:34
2. "A Visit to the Creep Doctor" (Robert Pollard) – 1:30
3. "Everyday" (R. Pollard) – 2:58
4. "Barricade" (R. Pollard) – 4:32
5. "Get to Know the Ropes" (R. Pollard) – 3:48
6. "Can't Stop" (J. Pollard, R. Pollard) – 2:26
7. "The Drinking Jim Crow" (R. Pollard) – 1:36
8. "Trap Soul Door" (Mitchell and R. Pollard) – 1:15
9. "Common Rebels" (Fennell, Mitchell, and J. Pollard) – 2:04
10. "Long Distance Man" (R. Pollard) – 1:17
11. "I Certainly Hope Not" (R. Pollard) – 2:01
12. "Adverse Wind" (R. Pollard) – 2:09

Guided by Voices

• Kevin Fennell – drums, production
• Mitch Mitchell – bass guitar, production
• Jim Pollard – guitar, production
• Robert Pollard – guitar, vocals, production

Additional personnel

• Mark Greenwald – artwork[5]
• Alan Moy – mastering at Masterdisk
• Steve Wilbur – guitar on "Barricade" and "Can't Stop", production

• List of 1987 albums

• Sandbox at Discogs (list of releases)
• Sandbox at MusicBrainz (list of releases)
• Review from the Rock Robot's Guide to Guided by Voices