album of the week - 10.4

Built To Spill

There is No Enemy

Warner Bros (2009)

why you'll love it: mellow, modest, lots of guitar solos

why you'll hate it: aimless, songs kinda go nowhere

Either this is a disappointingly routine album, or I'm getting BTS fatigue. I've never been a die hard fan to begin with, but I certainly enjoy a good dose of Keep it A Secret. Ancient Melodies of The Future was a total dud, but the two albums that followed featured a brand new epically layered sound. There is No Enemy winds up to be a compromise of the two faces of BTS, but taking the wrong parts from each of them.

Most of these songs are very long. Fans of the the last two albums, like me, assume the best from that. The band has historically done a wonderful job at twisting and progressing their longer songs so that they take you on a well-directed ride. This album on the other hand feels adrift, with long expanses stuck in the same melody and no real ups or downs. A lot of this album just sounds improvised, like when you see a band perform live and they do a jam in the middle of the song. Those jams are cool to experience live, but its a tiring blueprint for the official recording of the song.

These songs are very easy to pick up. It's just a matter of how long your attention can hold them. At the risk of sounding like a moron, I get bored with most of this album. There are parts i love - I love the outro to "Done", and the first two songs. Most of the songs on this album are pretty good, it's just that they meander around for a couple minutes too long and don't really go anywhere.