Built To Spill There Is No Enemy (Warner)
3/5
By: Matt Tomiak
Doug Martsch and his long-in-the-tooth Idahoans are the kind of band reconciled to a career of cult veneration; perpetually located alongside the esteemed but commercially undistinguished likes of Lambchop and Wilco within the pages of AOR glossies and clued-up discussion forums. They've got supporters in high places - Simpsons mastermind Matt Groening has invited them to perform at the ATP event he's curating – even if they’ve never had the hits.
Whilst Built to Spill's seventh album of diffuse, drawn-out dream-pop won't alter their standing in US alt-rock's peripheries, the stock of younger bands they've directly influenced have never been quite so high. 'Life's A Dream' and 'Good Ol' Boredom' engage with the delicate soul-searching and Beatles-esque harmonies that Death Cab For Cutie and The Shins subsequently took to the upper echelons on the Billboard 200 at the end of the noughties, sans the rangy Neil Young-style soloing that defines BTS.
'There is No Enemy' concludes with the spun-out 'Tomorrow', a schizophrenic last act fusing ineffable sadness with seething garage rock. Strangely enough, the very next track that appeared on my MP3 player after this album ended was 'Norway', a spacey highlight from widely eulogized Baltimoreans Beach House's Teen Dream LP. With its punch-drunk guitar lines and rueful vocals, the impact of Built to Spill on a new generation of blog-endorsed artists is - hearteningly - readily apparent.
Artists in this article: Built To Spill
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