“All Our Songs,” the lead track on Built to Spill’s latest record, Untethered Moon, is an unabashed celebration of the band’s 23-year-existence, featuring six minutes of guitar-soaring bliss that includes this admission of contentment from enduring frontman Doug Martsch: “And I found a place/Where I know I’ll always be tethered/And I knew when I woke up/Rock & Roll will be there forever.”
The next song, “Living Zoo,” opens with more of Martsch’s ragged guitar heroics, which bring to mind Neil Young by way of J Mascis after downing two Red Bulls. The most surprising aspect of the track is Martsch’s vocals, his high-pitched yelps seemingly never more engaged as he sings about how we’re “lions in our cages/And tigers in tiny spaces.” Read more in this week’s Sound Advice.
See Built to Spill with Helvetia and Clarke and the Himselfs Monday at Woodward Theater. More info/tickets:
woodwardtheater.com .
This article appears in Sep 30 – Oct 6, 2015.