Built to Spill - You inReverse

Wed 6th Sep, 2006 in Music Reviews

Built to Spill has always been one of those bands I’ve meant to check out. Rather than to my ears – my actual listening experience is limited to a clutch of downloads – it has been to my eyes, due to their insistence on reading countless pages of reviews and tidbits, that I have arrived at the understanding that the band is one of those seminal 90s indie-done-good cases. Perfect From Now On, Keep It Like a Secret, There’s Nothing Wrong With Love...you see, I can rattle off the “must have” albums, but indeed, You in Reverse is my formal introduction to the legacy that is Built to Spill. Tellingly most reviews of their first album in five years have name-checked previous glories, but sadly and obviously I don’t have that privilege.

So what can I tell you? Well, I certainly haven’t done myself any favours over the years by giving the group the cold shoulder. You in Reverse reveals a band not only built to last, but built to entertain and emote in equal measures. Opener “Goin’ Against You Mind” is perhaps the best example of the album’s sprawl. Stretched over eight minutes, it is indicative of what is to follow: perfectly refined pop-rock tunes extended to epic lengths with more than a hint of classic rock nostalgia. But it stands out as a relentlessly driving, spaced-out, existentialist jam (“When I was a kid I saw a light / Floating high above the trees one night / Thought it was an alien / Turned out to be just God”). As its initial pounding beat gives way to a weaving wave of guitar riffage you know they’re onto something special.

The rest of the album doesn’t always reach such lofty heights, but neither does it spill. The 10 songs are warmly preserved by raw yet humane production, which compliments the effortless meshing of melody and virtuoso playing. Remembering my lack of reference points, at times the album reminds me at times of a more dynamic My Morning Jacket, or straight to the source Neil Young. But this is not to label the Doug Martsch-led band who despite having to bear the inevitable, yet far-off, Pavement, Guided by Voices, and Modest Mouse comparisons (being an American indie band in the mid-1990s doesn’t help in this respect), have seemingly carved a very comfortable niche for themselves. Yes, Doug Martsch owns the quintessential high-pitched indie voice, but it’s all about how he uses is it – it may as well be a bloodied sword for the emotional depths it delves. He plays vulnerable on “Saturday”, remorseful on “Liar” and wise on, uh, “Conventional Wisdom” (“Some things never change / Nothings gonna change that”). And you believe it.

And you marvel at the guitar solos. There is Television and there is old Classic FM radio, and then there is Built to Spill. There are ballads (“Gone”, “Traces”) and rockers (“Conventional Wisdom”, “Mess With Time”) and curious in-betweens (“Wait”). There are albums you enjoy, and then there are albums like You in Reverse that make you want to track down everything else by the band, and pretend you were a fan from the start.