(Warner Bros.)
By Ryan White

Listening to Built to Spill’s latest album is like returning to your hometown and hearing some old friends play at the local spot. The first thing that you will probably notice about your old high-school favorite is that they have finally learned how to groove. No doubt as a result of having the same rhythm section for the past nine years (Scott Plouf on drums and Brett Nelson on bass), the once loose and jangly Built to Spill is now rock solid and providing grooves that you can almost dance to. Anyone putting in the first new Built to Spill album in five years will not be disappointed by the opening track. They come out of the gates with a hungry energy and a rawness not heard since “The Normal Years,” and a driving drum beat with enough ring in the snare that one can easily imagine the drum set parked right in front of the rear brick wall of a small club. Although tighter and more driven than their past efforts, they still provide all of the Built to Spill trademarks: delayed guitars, syncopated bass lines, Fender on Fender guitar tones and, of course, Doug Martsch’s adolescent voice singing lines like, “Thought ‘twas an alien, turned out to be just God.”

After the stunning opener, Martsch and company waste little time in establishing a new direction for Built to Spill while still giving nostalgic nods to the past. For the duration of the album, they take the listener on a musical retrospective, not only of their own catalog, but of the last few decades of rock and roll history. Those of us who grew up in the 80s and 90s would be forgiven for thinking that they are listening to a slowed down version of The Church’s “Under the Milky Way,” when the third track of the album, “Liar” makes it’s whimsical departure from the stereo speakers. The next track, “Saturday,” could just as easily have been a lost track from the Beach Boys “Pet Sounds,” as it could from BTS’s own “Perfect From Now On.” The riff-heavy “Wherever you Go” then jumps to the 70’s with undeniably Neil Young vibe and a classic Marsch Wah pedal guitar line (thank God someone is still using them).

The single of the album, “Conventional Wisdom” then jolts us out of our nostalgic haze with the garage band energy and imperfectly played guitar lines that made us all fall in love with Built to Spill in the first place. This turning point in the album allows the band to re-identify with itself and get comfortable in its old skin. Almost as if the pressure of a creating a new album has been lifted, Built to Spill happily spends the remaining four songs of the album playing in the style that they themselves invented, exploring new ground and passing off musical ideas like old friends finishing each others’ sentences.

From the Dick Dale guitar lines embedded in the opening track to the early Floyd delay on the closer, “You in Reverse” pays homage to all that came before it, all the while managing to still sound like a Built to Spill album. “You in Reverse” makes a worthy addition to their catalog, but never quite reaches the inspiring heights of “Keep it Like a Secret” or “Perfect From Now On.” It is also guilty of a problem that plagues many new albums these days: dense arrangements with a lack of dynamic range. This is a little disappointing from a band that once seemed to thrive on seeing how much they could build on an idea before letting it crash into a single guitar line or understated drumbeat. Despite this minor complaint, this is an album that is likely to stay near the top of one’s CD stack and is sure to win new friends while keeping the old.