Built to Spill
Keep It Like a Secret
Warner Bros.
Keep It Like a Secret is the fifth full release from Doug Martsch and company, and like a
Tom Robbins novel, there is a formula. There's the groaning pop of guitars that match Martsch's
Neil Young intonations perfectly. There's a sliding, gliding rhythm section that punches solid
like Cassius Clay. And most importantly there are the smart, finger pointing lyrics that make
you think that maybe it's OK to be as self-righteous as you feel.
This time around the sound is thin and punchy, like some of the best tracks from 1994's
There's Nothing Wrong with Love. But for those of you hoping for the thick, full sound
you heard on BtS's last release, 1997's Perfect From Now On, it ain't here. Three out
of the first four tracks on this album may be some of the best written, tightest work the
Idaho lads have put together, but there are no colossal crescendos and no miles-thick guitar
layering.
"The Plan" and "Sidewalk" have a density and drive not unlike some of the Flaming Lips'
best work. On "You Were Right" Martsch pays clever tribute to his classic rock influences by
collaging some of the greatest classic rock clichés coined by the likes of Hendrix,
Mellencamp and Kansas. Unfortunately, this album's second track — "Center of the Universe" — is
one of the worst BtS songs ever recorded. If there's a radio-ready lump of powdered sugar in
this collection this is it.
There is much talk of this being the album that puts BtS onto the pop radio/video map,
but with words that singe the way they do in "Carry The Zero" — "you're so occupied with what
others persons are occupied with and vice versa/ and you've become what you thought was dumb/
a fraction of the sum" — that's not likely to happen. Radio consultants and MTV have too much to
lose.
The second half of the album is filled with beautiful, trickling guitar parts and more
of the same rhythmic snap. There is, however, very little variation from a standard A-B-A song
structure. The songs begin to meander, like maybe there's a buildup right around the corner but
it just never comes. Rather than working together as a well-meshed whole, the parts that make
up these songs come out as just that, nicely formed, individual ideas that don't add up to
anything larger than their sum.
All in all this is a fine album. Maybe not Martsch's most important to date, but it's
probably worth laying out the cash just to hear the opening track.
— Larry Davidson (crumbtrail@hotmail.com)
