Album Review: Built to Spill’s There is No Enemy
On October 6th, Warner Bros. records will be releasing American rock band Built to Spill’s 8th full-length career album There is No Enemy and rumor has it – it may be their last. In their latest bio introducing the upcoming album, wife of lead man Doug martsch’s writes, “Three and a half years in the making, the efforts of writing and recording There is No Enemy, led Doug to wonder whether this would be the last album he ever makes.”
This may just be temporary fluster, but if you look at the length and breadth of There is no Enemy, it could very well read as an anthology.
Built to Spill have gone through several incarnations member-wise, since they came together in Boise, Idaho in 1993. They have, for the most part, worked consistently with the same general set of musicians but Martsch’s vision was to keep the music fluid and open-ended and to treat each project on an individual basis. Somewhere around 1999, however, this process proved to be too tedious and distracting, so a core group of permanent members was finally established: Doug Martsch on guitar and vocals, Brett Nelson on bass and Scott Plouf on drums. These members, along with a select pick of featured guests such as Jim Roth, Brett Netson, Scott Schmaljohn, Paul Leary and Roger Manning comprise the bill on There is No Enemy.
For those fans who have been anxiously awaiting this album, there will surely be no unpleasant surprises. All of BTS’s signature sounds are there, and a few new-style songs like “Hindsight,” (very country-rock) and “Nowhere Lullaby“ (very magical mystery tour) will quickly become new favorites.
It is a very full album (11 songs running 54 minutes) and because quite a bit of it consists of extended guitar riffs, ethereal and drawn-out vocals that carry over several measures, and lyrics that are more than just a little vague, it may be easy to feel disengaged at first – and maybe even slightly bored. But when given a chance, the project reveals itself as a richly textured dreamscape; a collection of subconscious images and sensations that stay with you in a most indirect way. This is one instance where the cover art just about says it all.
The tour promoting There is No Enemy unfortunately blew through Southern California last month and is now headed to the upper mid-west. It works its way to the east coast and back ending in Spokane, WA. November 21st.
Track List
- “Aisle 13″
- “Hindsight”
- “Nowhere Lullaby”
- “Good Ol’ Boredom”
- “Life’s A Dream”
- “Oh Yeah”
- “Pat”
- “Done”
- “Planting Seeds”
- “Things Fall Apart”
- “Tomorrow”
Purchase Now: on Amazon.com
