Keep It Like A Secret - Built To Spill (1999)If you took about a thousand guitars, melted them all down together into a bubbling mess and funneled the resulting sound out through a variety of effects pedals, you might have something resembling the amazing Doug Martsch and his band, Built To Spill.
This was the first BTS album I came across. Never even having heard of the band, it was a random impulse buy thanks to Amazon's usually annoying "Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought" feature. I had never used it before, nor have I since, but for whatever reason, I threw Keep It Like A Secret into the shopping cart.
The rub is that while I cannot even remember what inconsequential rubbish was my actual purchase, Secret immediately became one of my favourite albums ever. Scuffing and scratching from frequent listening necessitated the CDs repurchase three years later and then a third time when it was reissued on vinyl in 2007.
As a typical BTS song, "The Plan", (88/100), has guitars to spare. At any given moment, they can be scratchy, squealing or smooth, or all of the above all at once. Riffs come and go with insatiable frequency and yet with no alarm. The next is always ready to casually pick up where the previous left off. All is fused seamlessly in some brilliant sonic mosaic, crowned with existentially aloof lyrics.
The guitar gluttony continues on "Center Of The Universe", (92). The short, bright song springs along a catchy riff and airy melody, while pondering the struggle inherent in the compulsion for communication. "I don't like this air," he sings, "but that doesn't mean I'll stop breathing it." Vitality, as much as circumstance, dictates action.
"Carry The Zero", (100), (http://www.mediafire.com/?myhv7lvf4f0ljp5), starts off strong and incredibly builds up to two separate climaxes. Maintaining the jaunty feel of the preceding song, "Zero" spontaneously generates a fresh, impulsive momentum that will not be contained. It explodes into inevitable frenzy at 3:59 and finally into well-deserved elation at 4:38.
It is followed by "Sidewalk", (88), on both Secret and the Carry The Zero EP (released the same year). The sounds tweaked and teased from guitars here are sharp and spry, giving this tune a dynamic energy. "Bad Light", (93), deftly runs the sheen through a much harsher blender without diminishing it. There's a soothing backwards guitar among the hard edges where even "all that sun (which) makes so much shine" is "so hard to see in bad light."
If time is a river, as the Alan Parsons Project (among other prominent physicists) postulates, then the opening of "Time Trap", (95), might be the perfect accompaniment for a sail downstream. The first fifty lazy seconds fashion an enchanting, magnetic pull, while fuzzy guitar fades in from subtle undertow to full-blown vertiginous tempest around 1:06, all the more enticing in its excitement. Then, like arriving in a different era, the song completely changes at 2:03, ushering in a choppy beat and reverberation. As five minutes fly by in what feels like one or two, listeners can empathize, "Guess that's all fair now because guess that's all there ever was."
Perhaps "Else", (94), (http://www.mediafire.com/?hp4zxra14cw2zmd), could be described as the album's 'ballad'. The guitars are still out in complete adornment, but the pace of this song feels more laid back. There is an ethereal quality to this tune, with its casual and spiralling high-pitched guitar wails building to crescendo and the best use of high hat since "Stayin' Alive".
With "You Were Right", (92), emerges a rock beast. Everything just feels big about this song. The main riff and each bass note are devastating like the plodding march of a T-Rex. The lead guitar cries like a pterodactyl. Each insane drum beat detonates like a firecracker and the lyrics are a shout out to the classic rock pantheon. It begins with, "You were right when you said all that glitters isn't gold" and goes from there. (Oddly, Blue Oyster Cult's "Godzilla" is nowhere to be found).
"Temporarily Blind", (93), is another quick-tempo axe-masher comprised of at least four distinct and equally absorbing sections. Communication breakdown rears its common head once again as "they might let you say it but it would take all day to explain it" effectively signals the song's culmination in jumbled vocals and a molten wah riff.
Wah then begins and takes a prominent position on "Broken Chairs", (94). The
music has a bombarding thrust similar to "You Were Right" and the enigmatic lyrics are co-written by Black Uhuru. Even a whistling happy bridge can't temper some seriously livid guitar and an extended raging coda brings the spirited album to a close.The 2007 vinyl reissue also includes a bonus track, "Forget Remember When", which first appeared as the b-side to the 1999 City Slang "Center Of The Universe" single. This moody song also graced the Carry The Zero EP and the vinyl issue of Live (2000).
Since Secret, I have purchased all BTS albums and have tracked down many of their rarities. The run from Perfect From Now On (1997) through You In Reverse (2006) is an electric journey along a fantastic fretboard well worth the price of admission. I suspect with enough time, each will be represented here on this blog.
Despite the advice explicit in its title, this album is too good to reserve in hushed tones.
Keep It Like A Secret (album): 93/100.
I know one of those songs!!
ReplyDelete