Built to Spill - Ancient Melodies of the Future

Grade: 77.5%
Official Score: 78.0%

What Others Think

Pitchfork Score: 8.6
Tiny Mix Tapes Score: 3 out of 5
Coke Machine Glow Score: N/A




After Built to Spill boldly titled their third proper release Perfect From Now On, you sort of got the impression that they weren't just fucking around. Perfect was almost that, and the follow up, Keep It Like A Secret, only strengthened their claim. But after writing and recording not one but two pinnacle albums, a feat that most bands would sacrifice their lives to achieve, Built to Spill have come up short this time around and are perfect no more.

That is not to say that Ancient Melodies of the Future is a bad album, that would be an inaccurate overstatement. It is first and foremost a Built to Spill album, which can't be all bad just by name alone. Fans of the band should like this album just fine, and anyone who has seen them in concert can attest to the power that many of these songs have in a live setting, especially the stomping "In Your Mind."

My biggest complaint, the only complaint really, is that the band tried to find a balance between the lengthy, sprawling, Doug Marsch is a guitar God songs found on Perfect From Now On and the more concise, song oriented, and often times hummable nature of Keep It Like A Secret.

Many fans will argue that Secret was already a compromise from Perfect, in that the jammy, lengthy songs coexist perfectly with the more polished, concise songs. Honestly, I would be inclined to agree, but regardless of that fact I can see how there might still be room for more of a compromise, and I say that because the songs that stand out of Ancient Melodies of the Future find that balance fairly well. Those songs would be "Alarmed", the album's standout track. At over 5 minutes in length, it is the longest song on the album, and even though it feels like it ends too soon, all is forgiven because it hits on all of the bands high points. The dissonant keyboards, courtesy of Quasi's Sam Coomes, are also quite nice as they play perfectly well over Doug's masterful guitar work. Another song would be "Trimmed and Burning", which starts with a simple chord progression and minimal lead guitar, but about 1 1/2 minutes into the song it transforms into the Built to Spill we know and love, which is the Built to Spill that somehow found the balance between grunge and jam bands.

That is not to say that those are the only two good songs. On the contrary, "You Are" is a headphone rock masterpiece that would sound right at home on Perfect if it were only 2 minutes longer. "In Your Mind", while not as good on record as it is live, is still a force to be reckoned with thanks to a pounding rhythm that starts with Doug's acoustic guitar strumming, but is quickly overshadowed by Brett Nelson's bass and Scott Plouf's impeccable drumming. The album's closer, a song very dear to my heart (it was the first BTS song I ever heard...oh memories), is also one of the album's best because it is so remarkably different from the crunchy sound the band has perfected since, well, Perfect.

Perhaps I'm too demanding, or missing the point of this album. Perhaps I should give them more credit for not making a predictable follow up to the two that preceded it. Perhaps they restrained purposely so that fans would enjoy them more in the live setting when they inevitably get expanded by minutes (and minutes, almost twice the length in some cases), which seems like a reasonable thing for this band to do. If that is the case, I can completely respect that, it just comes at the price of me not thinking this album is perfect. But that is okay, because regardless of whether or not this album is perfect, I love this album (I really do), and there's nothing wrong with loving this album.