Built to Spill

Having closed out the '90s on the highest of highs ― 1997's Perfect from Now On and 1999's Keep It Like a Secret ― Built to Spill really had nowhere to go but down. Negative reviews for their subsequent releases were less a reaction to bad records and more lamentations that the releases weren't entirely great. Thankfully, There Is No Enemy returns the Idaho-based group into the latter category. It's an easy, breezy listen filled with some of the band's catchiest tunes to date. Lead single "Hindsight," with its "What about Canada?/It's paradise with pines and ice" line, and "Good Ol' Boredom," with its tremolo guitar lead, are immediate standouts. Purists might take issue with the more straightforward style of writing the band have employed, but there's plenty of Doug Martsch's impossibly bendy guitar solos to satisfy most fans.