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For There Is No Enemy, Martsch and company move beyond that back-to-basics approach, delivering a polished record that favors lilting mid-tempo ballads over ear-blasting ragers.
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Besides connecting the dots between the chugging side of Neil Young and the slightly warped alterna-pop of the Flaming Lips, Built to Spill continue releasing some of the most affecting, beguiling indie rock of the 2000s.
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Enemy takes the game Built to Spill has been playing for a while now and hits the right emotions in the right way.
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Martsch has hinted that There Is No Enemy could be the band's final album. If that's the case, the set's multifaceted melodies and experimentation would be an inspired sendoff.
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The highs here, while admittedly not quite as majestic or sugary as in the past, are still pretty far up there, and better yet, there are no lows.
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Despite the bounty of overdubs, however, there’s little self-indulgence to There Is No Enemy; Martsch’s overloaded approach might scream ‘prog’, but he also possesses a perfectly-disciplined, ‘pop’ songwriting sensibility, with every lengthy instrumental coda married to contagious choruses and melodic barbs that lodge in the mind.
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There is something exorbitantly satisfying about enjoying what you might deem to be a comeback album, especially when it arrives from an established band that many - including myself - thought were out of fresh ideas.
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Even at its most meandering points (‘Nowhere Lullaby’), the tangents on ‘There Is No Enemy’ feel purposeful. Martsch’s lyrics remain wry and erudite, but he’s back to expressing himself in a more whimsical fashion and, more importantly, writing actual melodies.
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The end result is easily the best Built to Spill album of the decade--an improbable late-career reawakening and heartening evidence that becoming dependable doesn't mean having to settle for being predictable.
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With seventh LP There Is No Enemy, leader Doug Martsch fully embraces Young's mid-1970s songwriter mold--the songs are a bit slower, with a reflective urgency and pop polish that garners strength in every repeat listen – and on that ground alone the album succeeds.
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It's a measured, thoughtful album befitting a group that has practically become a byword for consistency.
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There Is No Enemy does not offer new horizons for Built to Spill, but it does shine in a consistently good catalog.
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With the talent on display here, there's every reason to believe that the man will deliver another classic Built to Spill record someday. This isn't one, but in its best moments (and many of it's merely good moments), you'll be surprised at how little you mind.
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There Is No Enemy is not a return to form. It’s a re-imagining of a band’s distinct and timeless sound.
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Those seeking the naive concision of earlier records will be disappointed: Most songs sprawl near five minutes or longer. But their components are all about simple melodic beauty, writ large--prog-rock for pop purists.
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Under The RadarEven if the album as a whole isn't as eminently loveable as, say, "Keep It Like A Secret," though, there's still plenty to love here. [Fall 2009, p.57]
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He packs every song with parts--low, midrange and high guitars, vocal la-las and ahs--and all the layers can make the songs overstuffed and woolly, particularly the slow ones. But diligence is one way to fight complacency, and Mr. Martsch’s plaintive cantankerousness keeps breaking through.
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While we sit here wishing for that next sublime Built To Spill album, There Is No Enemy serves as a good fix to hold us on over.
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Alternative PressAs ever, Martsch prove capable of anthropomorphizing a bent string and imbuing it with more emotion than many bands' vocals and lyrics. [Dec 2009, p.112]
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Listeners who enjoy acts such as The Flaming Lips, Pavement, Dinosaur Jr, Superchunk and Neil Young would also enjoy Built To Spill. No, really, they would. And There Is No Enemy would be a pretty good place for those listeners to begin their investigations.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 28 out of 30
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Mixed: 0 out of 30
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Negative: 2 out of 30
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Dec 10, 2010