Built To Spill - There Is No Enemy
Label: Warner Bros.
Release date: 06/10/09
Website: BuiltToSpill.com
Buy: Amazon
The new Built To Spill album, the seventh in their seventeen year history, is one of the most comfortable and confident things Iâve ever heard. So quintessentially indie rock that they still carry the tag despite being on a major label, their best albums are so damn near perfect (Perfect From Now On and Keep it Like A Secret) that no one really minds too much if they make a sub-par one every once in a while (You In Reverse), and theyâve been going for so long that they surely canât care what anyone thinks of them anymore. All of this shows on There Is No Enemy, it really does, and thereâs an air of the old veterans coming back to show all these new youngsters how indie rock should really be done.
With less of the urgency found on previous albums, the record has a real relaxed and mature feel, the sound of a band taking time to slow down a little now their youth is getting further behind them. Thereâs a bigger focus on slower songs that grow and progress, filled with giant jangling guitars, like the slow moving, crushing wall of wailing noise on âOh Yeahâ or the epic, building horn fanfare and guitar solo of best track âLifeâs A Dreamâ. Then thereâs the more cheerful numbers with summery pop melodies, such as gloriously cheerful-sounding opener âAisle 13â, as well as âDoneâ and âPlanting Seedsâ that pile catchy electric guitars on to a solid acoustic base. There are, however, flashes of the band revisiting their glory days, with songs like âPatâ that would not sound out of place on Keep it Like A Secret, proving they can still write great energetic rock songs.
There Is No Enemy shows a band who are perfectly happy and perfectly comfortable right where they are. Built To Spill have never really flirted with the mainstream despite their long-term major label deal, and this record wonât change it. It also shouldnât alienate any of their old fans at all, especially those who have grown up as the band have. This is a record made by a band with few apparent worries, the kind of record that makes you feel like because everythingâs okay for them, itâll be okay for everyone else too. And itâs brilliant.
Rating: 8/10
The new Built To Spill album, the seventh in their seventeen year history, is one of the most comfortable and confident things Iâve ever heard. So quintessentially indie rock that they still carry the tag despite being on a major label, their best albums are so damn near perfect (Perfect From Now On and Keep it Like A Secret) that no one really minds too much if they make a sub-par one every once in a while (You In Reverse), and theyâve been going for so long that they surely canât care what anyone thinks of them anymore. All of this shows on There Is No Enemy, it really does, and thereâs an air of the old veterans coming back to show all these new youngsters how indie rock should really be done.
With less of the urgency found on previous albums, the record has a real relaxed and mature feel, the sound of a band taking time to slow down a little now their youth is getting further behind them. Thereâs a bigger focus on slower songs that grow and progress, filled with giant jangling guitars, like the slow moving, crushing wall of wailing noise on âOh Yeahâ or the epic, building horn fanfare and guitar solo of best track âLifeâs A Dreamâ. Then thereâs the more cheerful numbers with summery pop melodies, such as gloriously cheerful-sounding opener âAisle 13â, as well as âDoneâ and âPlanting Seedsâ that pile catchy electric guitars on to a solid acoustic base. There are, however, flashes of the band revisiting their glory days, with songs like âPatâ that would not sound out of place on Keep it Like A Secret, proving they can still write great energetic rock songs.
There Is No Enemy shows a band who are perfectly happy and perfectly comfortable right where they are. Built To Spill have never really flirted with the mainstream despite their long-term major label deal, and this record wonât change it. It also shouldnât alienate any of their old fans at all, especially those who have grown up as the band have. This is a record made by a band with few apparent worries, the kind of record that makes you feel like because everythingâs okay for them, itâll be okay for everyone else too. And itâs brilliant.
Rating: 8/10
