Built To Spill - There Is No Enemy

Built To Spill
There Is No Enemy
Warner Bros.
LP/CD

Built To Spill has always sounded to me like a Neil Young-fronted Pavement. But being a relative newbie to the canon of Built To Spill, having only heard their major label efforts (and finding them mostly uneven or lackluster), I am extremely impressed with There Is No Enemy. This is easily one of the most consistently great albums of the year and that has not proven to be a strength of most of their albums. The pattern I have noticed with Built To Spill is that the success (not commercial but musical) of an album is largely dependent on how much of an iron fist founder/guitarist/vocalist Doug Martsch rules with. His stranglehold of the songwriting provides a clear vision and this one is a message of reflection. Whether this was a conscious effort or just what happened to be on Martsch's mind is not clear but, with the longest layoff between albums in the band's history, it is hard not to believe it is intentional. The result is a resounding success that proves again that Built To Spill is worthy of their loyal fanbase. If anyone has jumped off the bandwagon in recent years, it's time to get back on.

Track Grades

1. Aisle 13 – 8.2
   
2. Hindsight – 9.5
   
3. Nowhere Lullaby – 7.8
   
4. Good Ol' Boredom – 9.6
   
5. Life's A Dream – 8.3
   
6. Oh Yeah – 8.6
   
7. Pat – 7.6
   
8. Done – 8.5
   
9. Planting Seeds – 9.2
   
10. Things Fall Apart – 8.4
    
11. Tomorrow – 8.3
    

Overall=8.55