Built To Spill

The band's third album and first for a major label sees them sacrificing none of their signifying elements of guitar attack and melody. If anything, the band drifts further into space with tracks such as the stunning, nine-minute "Untrustable." Far from the simple pop of earlier releases, this is the sound of one band expanding the horizons of indie rock.

Did progressive rock get a bad rap from the post-punk generation? Lately, everyone from
instrumental outfits such as Tortoise to four-track whiz kids such as Olivia Tremor Control
has been reinvestigating the world of the epic song suite and the mind-twisting tempo
change – with a vigor that suggests that maybe Rick Wakeman was right all along. Or maybe
half-right. Unlike their musical forefathers, the new exponents of prog aren't so... More >

"In a world that's not so bad," Doug Martsch builds a hideout worth visiting--more tree house than basement or cave, with hooks for footholds and misty guitar vistas when you finish the climb. Not a loner, just a small-town kind of guy, he derives his idea of the social from his experience of the musical. So when he says, "You won't help anyone/cause you're unusable," he can't possibly be talking about himself. I hope. (Grade - B+)