Track Listing

1. Goin' Against Your Mind
2. Traces
3. Liar
4. Saturday
5. Wherever You Go
6. Conventional Wisdom
7. Gone
8. Mess With Time
9. Just a Habit
10. The Wait

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #40200 in Music
• Brand: Warner Brothers
• Released on: 2006-04-11
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .21 pounds

Album Description
One of the most critically acclaimed of Modern Rock bands, Built To Spill returns with its long-awaited album, the first in five years. Putting aside extensive overdubs and an atmosphere sweep, You in Reverse captures the organic, loose, impromptu feel of the band's jams. Led by influential alt-rock hero Doug Martsch and sprouting new influences and a fresh feel, Built To Spill drives ahead with You in Reverse.

Amazon.com
It took Doug Martsch five years to complete this album so what's another two minutes? That's precisely how long it takes to sit through a nail-biting instrumental intro before the singer chimes in and you realize that, whew!, he still has it. The quirky, Idaho-born indie-rock group's first album since 2001's Ancient Melodies of the Future, is positively radiant. The meandering melodies have been reigned in but the songs still don't feel like they're rushing to get anywhere, even on the double-paced "Conventional Wisdom." On tracks such as "Liar" and "The Wait" the spacey guitar solos are tempered by sweet touches of slide guitar and a back porch rhythm. Meanwhile, there's a definite Neil Young influence creeping through "Wherever You Go" and "Gone," which makes the band that was weird enough to inspire Modest Mouse weirder than ever. --Aidin Vaziri

Customer Reviews

BTS emerge as the wise, elderly jam band ***1/2
I'm not a BTS fanatic. I've never followed them around the country, looked up anything about Doug Martsch's personal life on the internet, or any other weird, obsessive behavior concerning the band. I simply really like their music. I own the albums between "Perfect From Now On" (their best, imho) and this one. All four are fantastic, and honestly any of them could be your favorite. "Perfect" is lengthy indie/prog rock. "Keep it Like a Secret" is more loud indie poppish. "Ancient Melodies" is pop, but with dry production for a cool, low-fi feel. And finally, "You in Reverse" is an all out jam album.

BTS stays fairly true to many of their past formulas; up-tempo, obvious opening track (Going Against Your Mind), Radio-friendly ballad at about track 3 (Liar), killer lead single elsewhere (Conventional Wisdom), and a mellow closer (The Wait). In this regard, it's very similar to "Ancient Melodies." The biggest change is a focus on riffs. Yes, some of those riffs end up sounding like Neil Young, but remember their version of "Cortez, The Killer" on the live album? The band has an abvious affinity for Young, and a lot of their typical sound is indebted to him, so no big surprise. In the end, a lot of the sound of the album is pretty similar. If you can't get into it by track five, there's little hope you'll like the rest. But for those of us who enjoy the album, it's excellent music.

Overall: 7 out of 10.

Built to Spill prove that you can get older and better and wiser
Forget anything you have maybe heard or read about this record. If it doesn't say how great, how supercharged, or how monumental it is, then whoever wrote it or said it doesn't know what the hell they're talking about! 5 years in the making and Doug Martsch and crew are back and better then ever. Starting with an 8-minute plus fist in the air opus that makes your heart start racing and your whole body bolt wide awake.

While so many of their indie rock contemporaries have either broken up, burnt out, or become static recorders of nostalgic nothingness, Built to Spill prove that you can get older and better and wiser. Listening to this record over and over and over as I have, I've realized how wise Doug Marstch actually is about life and living. This is someone as in touch with his present moment as he was when he was 21. That's something that seems to be so lacking in most rock music. It's not rare for people to be really insightful and interesting and living in the moment when they are 21 or 22 and just coming of age but all so often as they get older they seem so out of touch and disconnected with what growing and learning and changing is all about. Martsch seems to have embraced all of that so well and this record is like the masterpiece of that maturity. Not the kind of "maturity" I talk about when people start making softer, safer records. This is the real kind of maturity. A group growing into themselves so perfectly. Guitars twisting and twirling and ringing so true. Melodies that build and bloom and take such nice form. While so many of the bands they helped influence (Modest Mouse, Death Cab For Cutie, etc.) have gone on to reach greater commercial success, you get the feeling that they couldn't care less. It doesn't seem too far fetched to start thinking about Martsch as his generation's Neil Young.

Timeless, iconoclastic, always stretching and exploring, even at the risk of failure. Martsch is someone who with their words and guitar makes you feel like you are being given the kind of jangly indie rock hug that you never want to end. Highly recommended!

The next great BTS album, finding middle ground between Perfect From Now On and Keep It Like a Secret
This really is an excellent BTS album, and brings them out of a relative slump (Ancient Melodies was not their best). It has a nice blend of the spacious jamming and creativity of Perfect From Now On, while maintaining the melodic sensibility and cohesiveness of Keep It Like a Secret.

If you are new to BTS, then Keep It Like a Secret is still probably better to start with because it is slightly more accessible, but You in Reverse doesn't give up much ground on that front either.

The single, "Goin' Against Your Mind", is a triumphantly great track, which Doug and the Boys have been playing live for about 1 1/2 years, and it great to hear how it has been polished up and more layers added in the studio version--although their live shows are an indie tour de force.

Also, you can hear the influence of Doug's solo project, Now You Know, etching out its place in tracks like "Liar" and "The Wait" (which is much improved over the version they were playing live over the last year or so).

All the songs are winners, but in particular, I also enjoy "Traces", "Wherever You Go", and "Conventional Wisdom."

Built to Spill already has a lot of tour dates lined up to show off this album, so check out their web site and see if they will be near you; they bring magic to the stage.