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Keep It Like A Secret
02/02/1999 3:00 AM, Yahoo! Music
Bob Gulla
He's been compared to Hendrix and Clapton by credible sources, but Built To Spill guitarist and songwriter Doug Martsch will never in a million years become a rock star. But then, the shy Boise-born and bred musician has never aspired to anything more than making good records, which he has done with regularity since starting his band in 1993. His newest, Keep It Like A Secret, the band's fourth album, is his best and most focused effort to date, and the first one with a solid, permanent rhythm section: Scott Plouf on drums and Brett Nelson on bass. Indeed, rather than plowing through a series of discursive, Strat-fueled prog-jams as he did on the thrilling Perfect From Now On, Martsch has curtailed his fancy flights in favor of jagged hooks on songs like "The Plan," the Clapton-esque "Temporarily Blind," and the tactile, Neil Young-ish jam to close the album, "Broken Chairs." In doing so, Built To Spill have made a concise, pop-smart record, centered around the peculiar but fertile imagination of one of indie rock's most inspired instrumentalists.
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