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April 16, 2006
CD Review: Built to Spill - "You in Reverse"
Dipping gently into the expansive jam-laden approach of their 1997 album, Perfect from Now On, as well as its hookier follow-up, 1999’s Keep It Like a Secret, Built to Spill has created a successful pairing of the two without falling into the somewhat stifled ditch they found themselves in on their last release, 2001’s Ancient Melodies of the Future. Former session contributor and touring guitarist Jim Roth is now a full-fledged member, and the album — the band’s first in 13 years without producer Phil Ek — is a slow burning, sometimes muddy, but mostly sparkling affair.
Relentless album opener “Goin’ Against Your Mind” is a brisk, two-chord exercise, slickly pounded out in layers for close to nine minutes. “Traces” is spooky mid-tempo pop wrapped in Dog Martsch’s warm blanket voice. “Liar” is soft, hooky, sing-a-long folk rock a la R.E.M. “Saturday,” the closest thing to a ballad on the album, is a swift, sweepingly breezy almost-intro to the chunky “Wherever You Go,” which could easily be an outtake from the sessions that produced Neil Young’s “Like A Hurricane,” and which lights a fire under the second half of the album.
From its sick and dirty opening riff and chugging on through to its gorgeous three-guitar break, “Conventional Wisdom” is unfairly good, but “Gone” might actually be the prettiest thing here, sliding in and out of minor key build-up and power chord blasts before slowly sinking in a sea of organ courtesy of Quasi’s Sam Coomes. “Mess with Time” is a fiery, middle-eastern guitar battle where both sides eventually decide to give up the fight in favor of shuffling ska jam session. A lullaby gives way to a fuzzbox freakout on “Just a Habit,” while “The Wait” closes the album in country style with sprinkles of reverb, reversed guitar and outer space sounds sprinkled on top for taste.
Recommended.
Music | By colrus | 10:51 PM
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