Built to Spill
Perfect From Now On
(1997) Warner Bros.

The newest release from Built to Spill is all over the influential map.As much as I hate to use analogies when describing bands, this album reminds me of so many other sounds that I have to mention a few of them. Sometimes I get feelings of Sgt. Pepper-era Beatles music with Supertramp style high-range vocals. The trippy, swirling guitar parts owe a great deal to David Gilmour (before he became the official pimp of Pink Floyd) and are layed over a sullen string section. Stand out tracks include 'I Would Hurt a Fly,' 'Made-Up Dreams,' and 'Stop the Show' which spends three minutes titilizing you with twangy guitar distortion before finally getting to its point... a very bouncy pop tune about... Hell if I know (there's no lyric sheet), but it's catchy stuff nonetheless. 'Out of Site' starts with a great hook, and then meanders into a Lennon-esque singing-on-the-astral-plane vocal effect... but just when you start grooving to the voice the tune launches you into an almost Fugazi-sounding bridge before starting the cycle all over again.

My only real complaint is that there are points where the lyrics are so silly that the singer seems to be reading aloud (to musical accompaniment) something that was written to him in his high school annual: "No one wants to hear what you dreamt about / Unless you dreamt about them / Don't let that stop you from talking about it anyway."
To sum up: If you like lots of long psychedelic guitar solos with interesting transitions (and we all do), this record was made just for you. If you're tired of mid-90s bands and their tireless fusing of Dark Side of the Moon with Sgt. Pepper, well... shame on you. Go listen to that guy with the big hat who sounds like Stevie Wonder.

–Mattro