Upon first impression, the seemingly ostentatious title of Built to Spill's sixth and latest studio album appears to be a contradiction in terms. The paradoxical concept of something being both ancient and futuristic is the kind of idea usually left to people like Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., or Stephen Hawking, or rock bands who haven't a clue about that sort of thing and figure it sounds like a good title. Or it could be suggesting that the trio have prematurely and confidently declared a new landmark by which all future melodic guitar rock acts will ultimately be inspired.
But our faithful indie-turned-major guitar hero Doug Martsch and his friends aren't pompous, and they're more clever than all that. The title Ancient Melodies of the Future signifies nothing more than the music of the present. The future's ancient melodies are being made as we speak. It's the perfect heading for Martsch's latest set of beautiful, unencumbered, unpretentious melodies. It leaves these songs to speak for themselves as they exist now, rendering comparisons, projections and superlatives practically unnecessary.
Of course, there are comparisons to make, but Martsch and company have built up a large enough body of work to make the only worthwhile comparisons those pertaining to their previous work. Fully absent is the sprawling melodic scope that 1997's Perfect from Now On demonstrated for the first time and that 1999's Keep It like a Secret compressed into chewable tablets. But unlike these two previous records, Ancient Melodies of the Future rarely strays from traditional pop structures. Melodies and chord progressions are kept simple, sweet, and relatively short-- it's the closest they've come to the sound of their indie pop breakthrough, There's Nothing Wrong with Love, since that album's 1994 release.
Two things keep Ancient Melodies of the Future from becoming a time trap back to the Up Records days of the mid-90's. One is Martsch and Phil Ek's production technique. From There's Nothing Wrong with Love to Perfect from Now On, Martsch and Ek suddenly transformed the Built to Spill sound from garage pop to atmospheric, almost orchestral guitar rock. That majestic, deeply textured sound has remained more or less intact since, even with their rock opera-size epics cut in half on recent outings.
The second aspect of the band's current state of evolution is their steady rhythm section lineup. Since Perfect from Now On, Brett Nelson and Scott Plouf have remained irreplaceable, vital support for Martsch's six-string virtuosity. Nelson's basslines anchor each song in the traditional rock sense while still maintaining a playful spider-fingers style, sliding and jumping across the frets only when truly appropriate. Plouf, formerly of the Spinanes, is a by-the-numbers, solid drummer, more often than not opting for steady intensity and subtle flourishes in lieu of bombastic fills.
One of the standout tracks from Ancient Melodies, "In Your Mind," most impressively showcases the supporting players' abilities to collaborate and gel with Martsch's own rhythms and melodies. Martsch's acoustic guitar provides the heavy cadence at first, then Nelson's bass starts with the same progression and Plouf accompanies the two with a single floor-tom downbeat. As the track shifts and soars, the instrumentation flourishes with synths and guitars, both forward and reversed. Nelson and Plouf adapt masterfully, selectively adding more versatile complexities to their parts. Meanwhile, Martsch explores dark, yet vague and enigmatic lyrical themes-- obsession and mind-reading, as far as this listener can tell-- to compliment the effective, foreboding, Eastern-tinged melody: "And no one can tell me what's right/ 'Cause nobody has my permission/ And no one can see what's in your mind."
Half of the tracks on Ancient Melodies are somewhat downtempo ballads, and the sequence is well chosen to weave these more sentimental songs amidst the presence of their equally effective rock counterparts. Placing the record's softest folk ballad, "The Weather," as the closing track, may be a bit predictable, but Martsch's conviction is well executed amongst reversed steel guitars: "As long as it's talking with you/ Talk of the weather will do." Likewise, "Trimmed and Burning" features a slightly twisted love ballad theme in its melody and lyrics ("I'd agreed to always love you/ But never enough to set you free"), justified by layered, meaty Southern riffs which render such candied sentiments insignificant.
Keyboards are more prominent than ever on this record, with glorious Mellotrons and other analogs embellishing Martsch's multi-tracked guitars. In fact, guest Sam Coomes adorns the gorgeously gleeful opening track, "Strange," with his Quasi trademark instrument, the Rocksichord. Its tinny, antique sting kicks off "Strange" with a simple major-chord progression that leads into one of Martsch's best melodic turns to date. It also offers some of Martsch's most lucidly poetic lyrics yet, continuing his fascination with the oddest qualities of communication: "This strange sound you said I said/ You're not listening, or I'm not saying it right/ This strange war of promises/ Let's call us a truce, we'll call it the truth."
Built to Spill may not have been aiming for high stakes when they called their record Ancient Melodies of the Future. In fact, the title could be looked at with a sense of resignation, with the knowledge that while the band may still have some music in store for us in the not-too-distant future, it ends eventually, and all they are will become ancient and perhaps forgotten. While this may be true, we prefer to optimistically count on the band's legacy and melodies to live on into the future, even after their songs and selves have become ancient.
