One of the decade's indie heroes, Built to Spill is a sensible brother in the "good fight" while striding alongside Pavement at the decade's forefront. Their key to success, though, was that Doug Martsch preferred graceful melodies, pop hooks, and an overall happier perspective to shine through the noisy aesthetic. "There's Nothing Wrong With Love" is their pillar, the footprint in the cement of the era that everyone can see ten and fifteen years later.



"Love" hits its stride almost immediately despite the good-but-unspectacular second track, "Reasons." But the three-in-a-row of "Big Dipper," "Car," and "Fling" is stellar, all buoyant and melodic and stripped of some of Martsch's occasionally bombastic "jam-like" arrangements. True, some days I prefer the grinding distortion of "Some" or the short jangly pop of "In the Morning," but there are far too many good moments to complain about the few small missteps. Most notable of those is the finale, "Preview," which is an amusing joke the first couple of times, but feels entirely out of place on an album that is otherwise an undisputable masterpiece. Just hear it once and skip it every time after that, but prepare to embrace the rest.



Best cuts: "Big Dipper," "Fling," "Car," "Some," "In the Morning," "Cleo," "Stab," "Israel's Song," "Twin Falls," "Distopian Dream Girl"