You In Reverse
- Built To Spill
- Band Name: Built To Spill
- Record Label: Warner Bros
- Release Date: Apr 11, 2006
- Critic Score
- Most active
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93May be the band's greatest achievement yet. [#20, p.90]
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This is a real, classic rock 'n' roll record, with powerhouse production backing a set of songs that actively engage.
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Though there are no great surprises on You in Reverse, it is one of Built to Spill's strongest efforts, and anyone who has followed their career knows that this is high praise indeed.
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Apparently revitalized and rejuvenated after a long dead period, Built to Spill pour a glowing display of exploratory zest and energy into the confines of each YIR composition.
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90Positively radiant.
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You in Reverse is a tremendous record -- engaging, enveloping, engrossing.
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More enjoyably organic-sounding than most of 2001's too pristine Ancient Melodies of the Future. [14 Apr 2006, p.86]
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83An album that does his low-key legacy well, mixing classic rock-influenced guitar solos and quaint folk sounds with psychedelic effects and high-pitched melodies that put Rush's Geddy Lee to shame.
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Doug Martsch, guitar god, has returned. [#13, p.83]
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It's not rocket science, that's for sure, but there are tunes here that most million-selling bands would give away all of their mansions for.
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80The vulnerable sound that you known and love--all slide guitar and open chords. [May 2006, p.94]
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A gorgeous set of spectral, ambitious and carefully crafted songs. [Jun 2006, p.188]
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80It all sounds lovely.
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Built to Spill has managed to elevate rock's pre-eminent instrument to a pedestal while creating something that's both approachable and timeless.
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Ultimately, You in Reverse is more a refinement than an evolution of Built to Spill's sound. Fortunately for those inclined to guitar rock, it's a great sound.
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80It can be seen as a return to form (epic songs, blistering guitar work) and a step in a new direction (rough-around-the-edges production, layered percussion).
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It's not an intrinsically triumphant album, and in part that's why it's a triumph: comfortable, well-adjusted rock by and for aging erudites, a bit greyer, a bit wiser, but no less creative or inspiring.
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80You In Reverse is equal parts subtlety and over self-indulgence, and its problems lie with the latter. More often than not, the stretched out jams seems to take up space rather than move the songs forward.
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Streaming melodies ("Liar"), Sam "Quasi" Coomes' organ ellipses ("Gone"), and the top down, spark-throwing "Conventional Wisdom" rush head-on into the 21st century like Hunter Thompson's hovercraft.
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75You in Reverse... rejects the pithy pop of their 1999 breakthrough, Keep It Like a Secret, for spacey, stretchy tracks that emphasize their unique, virtuosic musicianship.
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It is intermittently thrilling, the first record since Perfect to show any of that record's gleaming promise, but it is nonetheless brought aground by some of the same problems that dogged the last two LPs.
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A record that progresses as a sequence of dislocated sounds, an expressionist's puzzlebox that comes alive when distanced from one's preconceived notion of what a Built to Spill record should sound like.
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70Built To Spill's blend of expressive guitar playing and light to moderate whining plays as well today as it did when the band emerged nearly 15 years ago. [Jul 2007, p.96]
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70It plods before revealing its considerable sonic luxuries and melodic charms. [May 2006, p.105]
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The jams here rarely sound like filler: Even the Tex-Mex coda on "Mess With Time" packs more full-bodied crunch than the average Bonnaroo set.
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Without Ek's second opinion, the results of You In Reverse are mixed; some tracks rule and some tracks drool.
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68Aside from its abundance of overlong songs, You in Reverse is marred by a lack of strong melody when compared to Built to Spill's other records.
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50For the first time in their career, Built to Spill have made an album that is both lyrically and musically indifferent.
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User score distribution:
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Positive: 35 out of 39
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Mixed: 2 out of 39
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Negative: 2 out of 39
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Kirby10Solid album!
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Epic10Another flawless album by one of my favorite bands in the world. Solid all the way through, not one average song on the album.
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claudioe10wonderful