Built to Spill – There is No Enemy
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You know who Built to Spill is and you all know if you love them or hate them. In my short time here at Austin Town Hall there has been no band that has brought about such highly contested debates as Built to Spill. It’s undeniable that we here at ATH are fans of this band, but none of us can say we are diehard fans of their catalog as a whole. Some of us swear by the lo-fi pop sensibility of There is Nothing Wrong With Love, while others lean more towards the meandering rhythms of Perfect from Now On or Keep It Like A Secret. Don’t even get me started on the oft-shunned (Ancient Melodies of the Future) or critically-acclaimed but forgotten (You in Reverse) albums.
I must say from the get go that, in this reviewers eye (ears?), Built to Spill have earned a lifetime pass as far as new records are concerned. Each release is technically proficcent and good, but different levels of “good”. They can range from “absolutely fantastic” to “this could be much worse”. A bad Built to Spill record is still exponentially better than other bands great records.
So where does Built to Spill’s new album, There is No Enemy, reside? Is it too poppy? Is it too jammy? Is it fantastic or could it be much worse? Strangely enough you could answer yes to all those questions. The eleven tracks on There is No Enemy range for short bursts of Dinosaur Jr.-like speed (Pat and Aisle 13) to the more drawn out and introspective (Life’s A Dream and Things Fell Apart). While There is No Enemy is a completely listenable album, it fails to bring anything new and exciting. Say what you want about Built To Spill’s previous two albums, there were at least one or two tracks that showed the band’s progression, even if it sounded like reggae. But with this new offering the songs often fall flat. There is a moment at the three minute mark of Life’s a Dream where a new riff begins that’s punctuated by a brass section. At that moment I felt what I felt when I first heard Untrustable, Part Two or Carry the Zero, but that moment was fleeting.
This is the problem with giving bands lifetime passes. On one hand they continue releasing competent albums, but often times they are just that, nothing more.
Built to Spill will be playing at Stubbs on Saturday, October 24 with Dinosaur Jr. and Lou Barlow & the Missingmen
