Built to Spill
There is No Enemy

I believe Doug Martsch is one of the most original guitarists of the last 20 years. With Built to Spill he has produced exceptional albums and, at least, one absolute masterpiece: the emotional Perfect From Now On.

Sad music, but always with a hint of hidden hope. "Bittersweet" I think is the right term. With his sonic landscapes, good old Doug manages to cast a veil of positive melancholy over me. A unique sensation that's hard to describe. A melancholy that washes the soul when it's too dirty.

There is No Enemy (2009) is the most depressive album by BTS. The only one where I can't even find a small ray of light to clear the sonic shadows. A disillusioned album. Resigned. An endless lament, emphasized by Doug's tired and suffering voice. And I think this is the main "flaw" of the work.
The fact that it drags on, bored, for almost its entire length. The only exceptions: the blistering punk-rock of Pat, dedicated to Pat Brown of Treepeople, who committed suicide a few years ago (Pat we know you fucked up, but we don't care you fucked up... everybody's fucked up) and the splendid Tomorrow, an expansive journey, in pure BTS style.

Let it be clear, the band's compositional class is always present, and Doug's brilliant guitar work is a guarantee. Nothing is clichéd or trivial, but there is little energy. And, above all, the inability to trigger in me the painful joy that their previous works convey.

A good album, which in some points becomes entrenched without precise directions, and in others reaches lofty peaks, as in the case of the nocturnal ballad Life's a Dream, a small timeless wonder. Or the weeping poetry of Nowhere Lullaby.

There is No Enemy: there are no enemies.

No, Doug... there's always one. And it's constantly lurking: aging.

...sooner or later it happens to everyone.