BUILT TO SPILL - There Is No Enemy

It happened so slowly it took a while to notice. At the turn of this century, Built To Spill were a gold standard and just about the only major-label band out there still regularly called "indie". That's because 1997's Perfect From Now On and 1999's Keep It Like A Secret were not only two of the best records released in their respective years, they were also as un-major-label as you could imagine. Winding, meandering songwriting; compellingly tweaked arrangements; and haunted performances that patiently stretched themselves toward ambiguous, yet deeply satisfying resolutions—that was Built To Spill. But what first felt like a victory lap (2000's Live) was actually a premonition of the slump to come. Bloated and played with little regard for the audience or even the songs themselves, Live was a reminder of how even this band could use some limits once and a while. In short, Built To Spill have written some great songs in the 2000s, but never in a way that was sustained enough to produce great albums. There Is No Enemy seeks to rectify that just under the wire. The verdict? While not the equal of either Secret or Perfect, this is a really terrific album. 

With this group, it's all a matter of degrees (i.e. not too jammy/just jammy enough) and like baby bear's porridge, Enemy hits that hallowed middle ground. "Hindsight" and "Good Ol' Boredom" are the kinds of melancholic pop tunes that are BTS' bread and butter, but it's penultimate track "Things Fall Apart" that really shows what makes this band so special—a crawling ode to misfortune that evokes just as much comfort as it does despair, all delivered with the most eloquent of shrugs.