"We'll be alright in this spiderweb of love"

Indie rock heavyweights Built to Spill release their latest album, When the Wind Forgets Your Name.

Built to Spill is a band I’ve been drawn to because they’re an alternative/indie group that still has a sense of the lineage in which they’re participating. The classic rock name checks in “You Were Right” shows that they had a perception of the history and music that predated them. Singer and guitarist Doug Martsch has claimed his place as being the alternative/indie equivalent to those classic figures. In however many years when alternative becomes “classic” he’ll be up there with J Mascis, Carrie Brownstein, Jeff Magnum (to name a few) as the figures that went a long way in defining a kind and time in music.

As I listened to their latest album, When the Wind Forgets Your Name, I found myself thinking about another recent release by another alternative stalwart band—Superchunk. This album, like Superchunk’s Wild Loneliness, has a certain degree of restraint to it. It was perhaps even more striking for Superchunk, who I really associate with powerful guitars. But even Built to Spill on the aforementioned “You Were Right” or “The Plan” has some of that same distorted punch that you hear on the classic Superchunk albums.

While I thought it worked quite well for Superchunk (especially after their last couple albums had a real edge to them), I think it did not have a similar effect on this Built to Spill release.

With that said, some of the record did work for me. My favorite track on the album is “Spiderweb,” which features some really impressive soloing from Martsch. But more than those technical flourishes, what makes this track stand out is the way in which loud and the soft (or the distorted and the clean) strike a balance. In the Pitchfork review of When the Wind Forgets Your Name, Evan Rytlewski notes a “Lifes Rich Pageant chime” to the guitars on the track, which probably gets at why I enjoyed it. It has that R.E.M. jangle to it, though used within the Built to Spill sound and apparatus.

The album’s opener, “Gonna Lose,” feels like a classic Built to Spill song that wouldn’t seem out of place on the band’s earlier releases with a powerful Martsch guitar riff.

But once one moves beyond that, I find that the returns start to diminish. “Rocksteady” is certainly something that sounds different from what one would expect on a Built to Spill album, but I don’t know if that’s necessarily a good thing. It’s interesting in concept but less so in practice

The “Fool’s Gold” and “Understood” combo is fine following the strong opening track but it just seems a little indistinct for my tastes. There are parts of those songs I enjoy but on the whole I find they don’t work. I feel that way, though to a lesser degree, about the “Never Alright” and “Alright” combo. Those songs have more that I enjoy but there’s not quite enough that puts it at the level of the album’s better tracks. Those two tracks do have some of my favorite lyrics on the album.

Life goes on and on year after year
Don't recommend it, but I'm glad I'm still here
Let's get up and get over this fear

But save for those flashes as well as “Gonna Lose” and “Spiderweb,” When the Wind Forgets Your Name falls short of what I was expecting and wanted to hear. It’s worth listening to, particularly in a streaming or digital medium, but it’s not an album I’d say you have to go out and buy a copy of it on vinyl. But let me know—what did you think of the latest Built to Spill album? Do you agree with my assessment or disagree?