Built To Spill - You In Reverse

In these upside-down times where Modest Mouse now roar and Death Cab For Cutie jet off into the starry-horizon like a flying DeLorean, isn't it time for fellow American indie-rockers Built To Spill to pull a similar trick? The answer is an unequivocal 'Yes' if turbo-charged opener Goin' Against Your Mind or the ghostly latino buzz of Mess With Time have any say in it. Singer Doug Martsch also seems to have developed a subtle nuance, his previous Neil Young-whine less pronounced, more angular in his delivery of typically dry lines like "Thought it was an alien, turned out to be just God." Sadly it doesn't last, but when Traces and glorious finale, The Wait, fall back on more familiar Built To Spill territory, where wandering guitar solos slowly entwine into a solid mesh of dreamlike sound, it seems churlish to grumble. [Darren Carle]