Here’s our review for the 1997 album Perfect from Now On by Built to Spill.
Label: Warner Bros.
Release year: 1997
Showcasing an unbelievable 3-year musical evolution, Perfect From Now On is the masterpiece of Doug Martsch’s artistic career.
An hour long, it also demonstrates Built to Spill’s musical extremes through a giant leap from 1994’s There’s Nothing Wrong With Love‘s relative straightforward sound.
A more focused studio release with orchestral arrangement, lengthy song structures, and philosophical lyrical content, it’s the album no one was expecting from the Boise, Idaho based-band at the time.
Though BtS had experimented with longer song structures before, it never culminated in something as serious or melancholic to their work up to this point and though the indie world knew the musical talents of Martsch, this was the one that grabbed everyone’s’ undivided attention.
Martsch had also assembled another dream team to help him record with returning contributors Brett Nelson and Brett Netson (that’s right, both have very similar names) along with new drummer Scott Plouf.
This lineup would go on for more than a decade with Martsch ditching his initial revolving lineup idea until the 2010’s.
Despite being released on a major label, it bears a large anti-commercial sentiment. Martsch purposely made extended song lengths to prevent airplay as he wanted Built to Spill’s music to spread through word-of-mouth.
It also had production troubles as Martsch had recorded the album a total of three times with producer Phil Ek and nearly gave up finishing it as production costs had risen to $20,000. The result was worth it however. Perhaps one of the most ambitious albums of its time period, it holds up well today as a landmark indie release.
Opening with the epic rock operatic “Randy Described Eternity” one immediately gets a feel of the album’s no-nonsense setting when it leads into “I Would Hurt a Fly.” The mood for “Stop the Show” turns down its brooding tone before throwing you back into the album’s musically charismatic abyss. Its highlight is “Kicked it in the Sun” although if you’ll be gracious, every song is a highlight.