Built To Spill – You In Reverse. 2006.
It should be noted that I have a total hard-on for Built to Spill. And why shouldn't I? These guys are Grandpa Indie Rock. If there was an Iron Chef Indie Rock, Built to Spill would lead the team of Iron Chef Pavement and Iron Chef Modest Mouse. “This week's challenger is Jeff Magnum, now let's reveal the secret ingredient…Anne Frank!! This is great news and surely an advantage for Jeff! Iron Chef Built to Spill will have to produce some epic riff-age to overcome today's theme!”
But I digress. (I digress a lot, deal with it.) On to the album at hand, You In Reverse. First things first, the title blows. I'm not sure if Dug was going for clever or weird, but he ended up with lame, bordering on corny. Luckily the music did not suffer the same unfortunate fate. The “single” Going Against Your Mind (which was happily available on myspace before the album's release) is probably among the best songs BtS has ever made. The indie music review website that shall not be named described it as “epic,” and I can't say I disagree.
For better or for worse the epicosity (as it were) is basically limited to the single and Conventional Wisdom, which was released as a radio single last month. The remainder of the album ranges from Ancient Meoldies-style slower songs that almost hint of subconscious folk leanings, to the rough-edged Mess With Time that is eerily reminiscent of their earliest releases.
The pop and melody on You In Reverse is not as accessible as the last two Built To Spill albums, and is even lacking when compared to Martsch's interim solo album. That said, fans of Doug's solo work should find familiar themes in parts of this latest album. Complaints about the subdued role of vocal melody are worth noting, however I would mention that the vocals only take a back seat to the stellar instrumental parts (ok…Xtreme guitar soloz…) because of the live nature of the album. This is a good and a bad thing. On the one hand, the songs feel natural, unforced and alive. But on the other hand, so does Phish. In the past, Built To Spill was almost the anti-jam band with Doug's meticulous song-writing style and rigid melody structures. Now it is almost as if a song-structure is developed, used for 2 minutes, then abandoned in favor of pseudo-random epicosity.
This is not to say that every song devolves into a bong-toking jam-out. Saturday is probably the most out of place songs on the album in many respects, and although I would have to check if it had even one guitar solo in all its sub-3 minute glory, it has grown on me more than any other song so far. Well, except for the closing track The Wait, that song is fucking tits.
Posted by dkraft 
Posted by dkraft 
