Search - Built to Spill :: The Normal Years

Fun album with some great gems

MM | USA | 10/26/1999

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This album is very good. It contains some really fun, rocking songs that, when listening to them in my car, I roll down the window and plaster a big smile on my face. "Sick and Wrong" has such a fantastic guitar hook, while "Joyride"'s lyrics and energy are pure cheeky fun. "Car" is a beautiful lament. the one problem with this album is that there are a few songs that don't measure up to the others. I can't stand the song "Girl"- I skip it every time, it irritates me so, it's like a bad Green Day song. and the instrumental "Some" is way too long and meandering and, well, boring-- it is better to check out the same "Some" (only with lyrics and a developed sense of song identity) on "There's nothing wrong with love". conclusion- a very good BtS album, but if you're listening to Built to Spill for the first time, check out "There's Nothing Wrong with Love" or "Keep it Like a Secret" first."

Review of "the normal years" by Built to Spill

11/16/1998

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I think its a great album. If you like earlier Pavement and Modest Mouse and Sebadoh and the like (melodic indie guitar rock) then i think you'll love it..... Terrible/Perfect, joyride,some things last a long time and whatever ****.... are incredible songs.."

The good, the bad, and the bad.

fluxequalsrad | where in the world am I? | 08/25/2002

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Even for the outtake collection of one of the greatest bands ever, the quality of a few of these tracks is really surprising: easily matching the best song on TNWWL, Stab -- but for the outtake collection of one of the greatest bands ever, there's an astounding quantity of throwaways.Let's focus on the positive first. So & So, Terrible/Perfect, and Some Things all rank with Stab as the best stuff that Doug Martsh had recorded up until that time. It's a wonder that they did not in fact end up on There's Nothing Wrong, though to be sure they would have stolen a bit from the quaint personality of that album: and So & So in particular, with it's plaintive mood and bouncy but precise guitar-work, might have stood a chance on Alternative radio. As it is, these songs are surprising gems that, along with other solid tracks like Sick and Wrong and Joyride, elevate this collection far above a simple piece of interest for completists.But it is pointless to rate this album just as an outtake collection. So let's talk about the bad. There are two duds (Shortcut and Girl), two inferior duplicates of TNWWL tracks, and Still Flat, which gets on my nerves because it starts great but by the end is a complete bore. On paper, these five flawed tracks might not seem so terrible, but they have a way of getting together and really dominating the mood of the album. There is, in the end, little point to listening to Normal Years all the way through."