Trans Am - Surrender To The Night
After a couple of underground albums, this is the big sell out, major label, career make-or-breaker for this group from Idaho. It’s certainly ambitious, stubbornly so. Every song registers at over five minutes, which is no crime in itself of course, but don’t come here expecting short sharp pop thrills.
With an almost masochistic penchant for grandiose cacophonies the band’s self-indulgence is staggering. Where there should be form and direction there is only a disorientating sprawl of distorted guitars, cellos, moog and a constant vain glorious endeavour for the epic. The elusive tunes are swathed in impenetrable layers of obfuscation, the whining vocals only augmenting the endless leaden monody.
Caught in such an overwhelming environment of insipid bombast, passable tracks such as, ‘Stop The Show’ or ‘Untrustable’ just fail to deliver. There are no really outstanding songs and despite taking Neil Young or Pavement as their reference points all Built To Spill achieve is a structureless elegy to contrariness.
In the continuing fallout from the grunge-aftermath, there are three options for American alternative rock groups, lo-fi ignominy, balls-out punkorama or Smashing Pumpkins. Built To Spill have tried for the third. And failed.(2)
Michael
