The current lineup has so far made four albums-- August by Cake, Space Gun, How Do You Spell Heaven and the new Zeppelin over China-- and they're all topnotch, full of great songcraft and lower on the eccentric touches.
For most people the two most classic albums are Bee Thousand and Alien Lanes and they're both great, though steeped in the low-fi aesthetic that they'd abandon later on. Isolation Drills is also very well liked, though it's probably the most polished of all GBV albums (too much so for my taste).
Two others I'm very fond of are Universal Truths and Cycles (a heavier rock sounding album) and Let's Go Eat the Factory (which marked the classic lineup's reunion), though neither is in most fans' top five.
They also have a best-of album, Human Amusements at Hourly Rates) which does the job well (up to that point at least).
The only ones to avoid are Vampire on Titus (their closest to a dud songwise, though the CD matches it with the much better Propeller) and Please Be Honest (which I like, but it sounds pretty weird because there was no band then and Pollard played everything).
Happy hunting!
Bookmarks