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Built To Spill

There Is No Enemy

Warner Bros | 2009 | Album

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Seven albums and over twenty years into a career that helped to define the independent rock sound of the 1990s and 2000s, Built To Spill have always had a knack for marrying volatile space-rock guitar claustrophobia with gems of indie rock songwriting. Epic multi-part songs leave listeners alternately exhilarated and mesmerized with ear-pounding explosions of distortion and zen-like interludes of twinkling guitarwork. Doug Martsch’s unmistakably emotive high tenor floats through infectiously catchy verses and sing-along choruses over spastic three-guitar attacks.

There Is No Enemy is no radical departure from Built To Spill’s earlier work. There are still the tangled guitars and earworm choruses. But the music has reached a point of evolution that puts There Is No Enemy alongside the band’s best work: a perfect blend of focus and instability that we haven’t heard since Perfect From Now On, songwriting more concise and melodic than anything since There’s Nothing Wrong With Love.

The best songs here are as strong as anything in the band’s massive catalogue. In the powerful and sprawling “Things Fall Apart,” Martsch follows the mournful cries “Fade out” with the bitter realization that “No one thinks of no one—no one believes in no one.” The exhilarating pop of “Planting Seeds” masks angry lines like “Just because it’s obvious doesn’t mean it’s even true” in a gem of a song as good as anything the band has ever delivered. “Nowhere Lullaby” is a classic and painful Built To Spill ballad. Then there are the sprawling guitar interludes of “Good Ol’ Boredom” and “Done” and the slow-burner/interstellar fireball “Oh Yeah.”

A sense of maturity and lyrical depth pervades There Is No Enemy, but the album certainly doesn’t redefine the band’s sound. Most longtime Built To Spill fans will embrace it as a natural progression for the group—more focused and mature while maintaining the blend of perfect pop and burgeoning instability that’s always made their sound so unique and effective.

Hannis Brown