BUILT TO SPILL: THERE'S NOTHING WRONG WITH LOVE (1994)
1) In The Morning; 2) Reasons;
3) Big Dipper; 4) Car; 5) Fling; 6) Cleo; 7) The Source; 8) Twin Falls; 9)
Some; 10) Distopian Dream Girl; 11) Israel's Song; 12) Stab; 13) Preview.
Perhaps I am not getting something, but I
actually hear this record as a notable, if not blatantly notable regression from the band's debut. Naturally,
there's nothing wrong with love, but there is
something wrong about starting out as a small, instrumentally traditional, but
decidedly experimental combo and then, once you have laid out a claim,
retreating into safer, much better known and exploited territory. In other
words, Built To Spill's sophomore effort is a more accessible, more easily
understandable, more emotionally predictable, and more intellectually boring
record than their debut — and it really needn't have been that way.
The songs, for the most part, are indeed about
love, although I couldn't vouch for everything — to do that, I'd have to check
the texts, and, unfortunately, Martsch's sneery, slightly Lennon-esque (but
much less sharp) vocals just do not inspire me into a detailed investigation of
what's under the hood. In any case, there isn't a single ballad here with the
emotional grip of ʽHazyʼ — as a matter of fact, the album does not distinguish
well enough between rockers and ballads anyway. It's all just an interminable
hookless mess of bland syncopated alt-rock riffage; thank God that they do not
at least go overboard with the grungy distortion schtick, because with just a
little push they could have become an early predecessor to Nickelback.
I mean, the song ʽCarʼ was a goddamn single here. Speaking of singles, is
there a single reason why that song should command our special attention? It
has no hooklines whatsoever, the singing is completely expressionless, and the
use of cello is pretty much wasted since it just blends together with the
bassline. Rotten dynamics, too: both of the solos are mixed in way too low, so
it all feels more like obligatory bits of jamming rather than elements of
development. Nor does the melody change throughout — just riffing on that same
chord. If this is the single, how could you expect the album to be any better?
It isn't. It's all a letdown.
Arguably, Martsch's big mistake here was to
make a «soulful» record, something like a cross between a set of John Lennon
bedroom guitar demos and sentimental Californian singer-songwriting, combining
the harshness and directness of the former with the vulnerability and sweetness
of the latter. Perhaps I am messing up the real influences here, but no matter:
the important thing is that, in the process, the songs all got more simple,
poppy, and samey, which is just not good, because Buit To Spill are not masters of the pop hook. A few
nicely placed vocal lines on ʽReasonsʼ and maybe ʽBig Dipperʼ are still offset
by the overall grayness of the arrangements, and I remember absolutely nothing
about any of the other songs, not even after three or four listens.
Actually, I do
remember one of the lines on ʽStabʼ — "I wrote a song, it was slow and
long". Not all the songs here
are slow and long, but most of them feel slow and long, largely because they
are based on such familiar and uninteresting rhythm and lead patterns. But if
it is not the innovative guitar work, what could it be then that could make
this album work in return? The singing? Bland, if at least not over-dramatized.
The arrangements? They're all the same: guitar-based, too restrained to kick
your rock'n'roll ass and too brutal to have subtlety. The bare fact that this
does not sound like Pearl Jam or Smashing Pumpkins? Well, it does not. In fact,
it all still sounds more «wise» than your average (or even your average famous)
alt-rock band, precisely because of Martsch's restrained approach — but what
can I do with myself if all this «wisdom» just deteriorates into blandness and
boredom at the blink of an eye?
The least boring track on the album is the
final joke — ʽPreviewʼ, a spoof on bonus tracks that gives us a glimpse of the
«upcoming» album by the band, with brief snippets of several «songs» (parodies
on punk and power ballads) that actually sound more exciting than the album
itself. Even if a few tunes have potential, they would still need to be
rewritten and re-recorded to realize it fully (ʽReasonsʼ, that's the one I am
especially looking at — I wonder what somebody like John Lennon could have made
out of it, had it fallen into his hands? It's definitely got a «Lennon-type
chord change» to it around the 1:02 mark, and later). As it is, I can only view
the record as yet another of the many mid-1990s failures to bring intelligent
guitar-based singer-songwriter rock back to its former standards, and
sorrowfully award it a thumbs down.
Three references to Lennon in one review? Are they were worth three precious invocations of the First Person of the Tetrinity, especially on a thumbs down album? (What would be the etymologically correct way of stating the fourfold version of the Trinity?)
ReplyDeleteMaybe Quadrophenity?
DeleteQuaternity.
DeleteThe Lennon-esque chord change is a reference to Isolation I guess?
ReplyDeleteYou know, I thought this review was really harsh, and I was ready to post a comment filled with all the reasons why this album is, in fact, pretty good. But now that I try to recall the songs on the record... I think you're kinda right about your "interminable and hookless" critique. Kinda right, because while I actually love a handful of these songs ("Big Dipper" rules! "Distopian Dream Girl" rules! And you can't knock "Car!" The whole song is a hook!), there are long stretches of the album where I can't remember a goddamned thing. Like, what is "Some"? What is "Israel Song"? I remember "Fling" and "Twin Falls," as they each break a string of leaden rockers, but I never liked them very much. So, yeah, good review. Maybe this one does have a super-inflated reputation. But if you can say the same thing about "Perfect From Now On," well, I'm gonna be surprised. Cuz that album rules! Thoroughly!
ReplyDelete