Review by LarryG
3 stars out of 4
Doug Martsch's Built to Spill have definitely become a band to watch.
1994's There's Nothing Wrong With Love was a real find, a low budget
record filled with quirky gems. The songs like the fun Big Dipper and
Twin Falls, Idaho, a poignant tribute to how Martsch's mom raised him
on her own, were personal and well written. After getting
signed by Warner Brothers, in 1997 Built to Spill made Perfect From Now
On, a bigger sounding but less tuneful record. On Perfect From Now On,
Martsch showed off growing guitar prowess and fascination with guitar noise
on long, dense, sprawling songs. Keep It Like a Secret is an
excellent marriage of the two earlier records. He still shows a love
for guitars but showcases it in likeable, personal songs. From the start,
Martsch makes it clear that Keep It Like a Secret is going to be accessible
to a broader audience than Perfect From Now On. The opener, The Plan,
shows its pop hook right away. The song has a
break for guitar noise in the middle but doesn't get bogged down,
finishing in 3 minutes instead of the 7 or 8 of most songs on Perfect From
Now On. Only on the cd's last song, Broken Chairs, does the band indulge
in a lengthy jam. Carry the Zero brings to mind Perfect From Now On's
Kicked It in the Sun but with a lighter touch. Song after song is
substantial but pleasantly poppy, mixing in interesting sounds but keeping
the song moving. The band keeps on throwing out catchy riffs. Martsch's
voice is whiny but appealingly unpretentious. His songs are about a
decent guy trying to do the right thing.
On the goofily charming Center of the Universe, he apologizes for being
able to communicate well to a friend. On Else, he laments how funny love is
but, with resignation, recognizes the need to be with someone. As in his
previous work, Martsch's love of music and joy in what he's doing is
clear. His singing and playing have a real openness. On You Were Right,
over layers of guitar and a great loose beat, Martsch tells a joke but also
expresses his mixed world view, saying which rock classics had a correct
message (Dust In the Wind, Another Brick In The Wall, You Can't Always Get
What You Want, A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall) and which were wrong (any
song that said Everything's Gonna Be Alright). Built to Spill's
love of guitars brings to mind other alternative bands that love guitars but
they've got more substance and consistency than most of Pavement and are
more fun and less ironic than Sonic Youth. The thing that really distinguishes
Built to Spill on Keep It Like a Secret from other similar is their love of
a good pop song. The bottom line is that Keep It Like a Secret is great
listening. It's well played, catchy and challenging rock.
Here's what others reviewers have to say:
".........Built To Spill songs are typically about the
physics of colliding emotions, about dissension at home and in the
head....Yet there is something very whole and intoxicating about the way
Martsch sets unraveling relationships against fastidiously scripted
riff fireworks..." Rolling Stone 2/18/99, p.57-58
"...most focused effort in its nine-year
career....a luminously poetic expression of good old-fashioned crash-and-burn
sonic beauty..." CMJ 2/1/99, p.3
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Forget all that other stuff. This is the best album of 1999.
--Duck Boy
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