Built To Spill - 'There Is No Enemy' (ATP) Released 08/02/10

While the early 1990s saw the American music scene awash with plaid shirts and greasy hair, the real revolutions were taking place in the scattered corners of its underground. One of those was in the Idaho city of Boise, which although not a million miles away from the more celebrated home of grunge Seattle, managed to throw up an outfit just as influential, if not in a commercial sense then certainly by way of the legacy they’ve spawned.

Built To Spill might be one of those names commonly associated with the more studious musical exports from the States along with the likes of Guided By Voices, Pavement and Thinking Fellers Union Local 282, and with endorsements from artists as far and wide as Modest Mouse, The Strokes and Death Cab For Cutie, their influence has been felt in many a region of independent rock’s vast spectrum.

Although initially released in the US last October, their newly signed deal with ATP Recordings – surely the spiritual home for one of its sister festival’s most pivotal bands – means that ‘There Is No Enemy’, their seventh long player to date, can finally be unleashed on audiences this side of the pond. More importantly, fans of the band both old and new won’t be disappointed either by a record that, while not quite scaling the dizzy heights of ‘Perfect From Now On’, arguably Built To Spill’s coup de grace, sounds anything like a band searching for its former creative glories.

Instead, there’s an intrinsic belief that ‘There Is No Enemy’ may have been possibly the least traumatic record Doug Martsch and co. have penned thus far. While the introspective melancholia of ‘Nowhere Lullaby’ and ‘Done’ sound like paeans to a former partner of what has since become a soured relationship, the likes of opener ‘Aisle 13’ and mid-point ‘Pat’ recall Built To Spill in their most primitive, playful guise. While the latter’s swirling sound and choked vocals recall Dinosaur Jr or Yo La Tengo at their most severely twisted, the former stands out as possibly Built To Spill’s most insatiable pop song to date, Martsch’s opulent reverie of  “No one knows ‘cos no one wants to know what they might find” swooning impeccably against a tide of reverb-laden guitars like REM at their indigenous best.

Add to that the plaintive ‘Oh Yeah’, which sounds like The Doors on a peyote comedown or erroneous country twang of ‘Things Fall Apart’ and you’ve a record that is as diverse in make-up as it is an obvious successor to any of Built To Spill’s previous output. Perhaps the real indication of the band’s ostentatious vigour can be found in the mellow strains of ‘Hindsight’, ‘Martsch insisting “Hindsight’s given me too much memory”. No one’s arguing with that statement of intent for sure, and as the results testify, ‘There Is No Enemy’ is a record its creators can be suitably proud of.