The Bears For Lunch (studio album)
by Guided By Voices

The Bears For Lunch by Guided By Voices
Year: 2012
Release date: 2012-11-12
Overall rank: 69,074th   Overall chart historyOverall chart history
Average Rating: 
69/100 (from 14 votes)
  Ratings distributionRatings distribution   Average rating historyAverage rating history
Accolades:
Award Top albums of 2012 (1,732nd)
Award Top albums of the 2010s (17,802nd)
Award Best albums of all time (69,074th)

Guided By Voices bestography

The Bears For Lunch is ranked 37th best out of 63 albums by Guided By Voices on BestEverAlbums.com.

The best album by Guided By Voices is Bee Thousand which is ranked number 540 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 3,243.

Guided By Voices album bestography « Higher ranked (66,177th) This album (69,074th) Lower ranked (70,237th) »
Crystal Nuns CathedralThe Bears For LunchMirrored Aztec

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The Bears For Lunch track list

  Track ratingsTrack ratings The tracks on this album have an average rating of 76 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).

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3.
Rating: 76 (2 votes)Comments: View 0
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4.
Rating: 77 (2 votes)Comments: View 0
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5.
Rating: 73 (2 votes)Comments: View 0
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6.
Rating: 74 (2 votes)Comments: View 0
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10.
Rating: 77 (2 votes)Comments: View 0
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11.
Rating: 77 (1 vote)Comments: View 0
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13.
Rating: 76 (1 vote)Comments: View 0
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14.
Rating: 78 (2 votes)Comments: View 0
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16.
Rating: 76 (1 vote)Comments: View 0
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17.
Rating: 77 (1 vote)Comments: View 0
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The Bears For Lunch rankings

The Bears For Lunch collection

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The Bears For Lunch ratings

Average Rating: 
69/100 (from 14 votes)
  Ratings distributionRatings distribution Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AV
where:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.

Showing latest 5 ratings for this album. | Show all 14 ratings for this album.

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RatingDate updatedMemberAlbum ratingsAvg. album rating
 
80/100
 Report rating
03/12/2025 04:26 PapaShiz86  Ratings distributionRatings distribution 10,59679/100
 
60/100
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01/28/2023 10:23 Tamthebam  Ratings distributionRatings distribution 22,75969/100
 
65/100
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11/09/2022 13:09 Arthurknight  Ratings distributionRatings distribution 9,59172/100
 
50/100
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12/20/2021 18:32 Maxence  Ratings distributionRatings distribution 12,50461/100
 
80/100
 Report rating
04/16/2020 19:03 CosmicMicrowaveO  Ratings distributionRatings distribution 38485/100

Rating metrics: Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some albums can have several thousand ratings)

This album has a Bayesian average rating of 69.1/100, a mean average of 66.8/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 66.8/100. The standard deviation for this album is 16.9.

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The Bears For Lunch favourites

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The Bears For Lunch comments

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Rating:  
75/100
From 06/06/2016 13:14
Far and away the strongest album of GBV's reunion period (2010-2014). It's a shame they chose to release 3 albums (!) in 2012 instead of one really solid one. The first couple of times I listened to this I thought the songwriting was pretty weak and the production verging on un-listenable. But then I made a play-list of the more palatable tracks from Bears, Factory and Class Clown. Much to my surprise the result was actually really really good, and would rank among my favorite GBV albums were it an official release. Sometimes a whole really is greater than the sum of it's part's, and GBV have always been most successful when they bother to properly curate their work. I probably wouldn't rate Hot Freaks or Queen of Cans and Jars very highly if I'd first heard them as stand alone tracks, but in the context of Bee Thousand they're magic.

So here's my best of GBV 2012 playlist for those curious:
King Arthur the Red
The Corners are Glowing
Have a Jug
Hangover Child
Class Clown Spots a UFO
Chain to the Moon
The Unsinkable Fats Domino
Starfire
Jon the Croc
Doughnut for a Snowman
The Room Taking Shape
The Challenge is Much More
Waving at Airplanes
The Military School Dance Dismissal
White Flag
Keep it in Motion
She Lives in an Airport
Waking up the Stars
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