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There Is No Enemy
Generally favorable reviews
Based on 23 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 18 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album >
Album Info
Label: Warners Bros.
Release Date: 06 October 2009
Discs: 1 disc
Genre(s): Rock, Indie
Summary
The latest album for the indie rock band features Quasi's Sam Coomes, Treepeople's Scott Schmaljohn, Butthole Surfers' Paul Leary, John McMahon, and Roger Manning as guest musicians.
Also By This Artist: Ancient Melodies Of The Future Keep It Like A Secret You In Reverse
Also On The Web: Official Artist Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
The Onion (A.V. Club)
For There Is No Enemy, Martsch and company move beyond that back-to-basics approach, delivering a polished record that favors lilting mid-tempo ballads over ear-blasting ragers.
Read Full Review >Dusted Magazine
Enemy takes the game Built to Spill has been playing for a while now and hits the right emotions in the right way.
Read Full Review >All Music Guide
Besides connecting the dots between the chugging side of Neil Young and the slightly warped alterna-pop of the Flaming Lips, Built to Spill continue releasing some of the most affecting, beguiling indie rock of the 2000s.
Read Full Review >Billboard.com
Martsch has hinted that There Is No Enemy could be the band's final album. If that's the case, the set's multifaceted melodies and experimentation would be an inspired sendoff.
Read Full Review >Delusions of Adequacy
The highs here, while admittedly not quite as majestic or sugary as in the past, are still pretty far up there, and better yet, there are no lows.
Read Full Review >BBC Music
Despite the bounty of overdubs, however, there’s little self-indulgence to There Is No Enemy; Martsch’s overloaded approach might scream ‘prog’, but he also possesses a perfectly-disciplined, ‘pop’ songwriting sensibility, with every lengthy instrumental coda married to contagious choruses and melodic barbs that lodge in the mind.
Read Full Review >Drowned In Sound
There is something exorbitantly satisfying about enjoying what you might deem to be a comeback album, especially when it arrives from an established band that many - including myself - thought were out of fresh ideas.
Read Full Review >Rock Sound
Even at its most meandering points (‘Nowhere Lullaby’), the tangents on ‘There Is No Enemy’ feel purposeful. Martsch’s lyrics remain wry and erudite, but he’s back to expressing himself in a more whimsical fashion and, more importantly, writing actual melodies.
Read Full Review >Pitchfork
The end result is easily the best Built to Spill album of the decade--an improbable late-career reawakening and heartening evidence that becoming dependable doesn't mean having to settle for being predictable.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle
With seventh LP There Is No Enemy, leader Doug Martsch fully embraces Young's mid-1970s songwriter mold--the songs are a bit slower, with a reflective urgency and pop polish that garners strength in every repeat listen – and on that ground alone the album succeeds.
Read Full Review >Paste Magazine
It's a measured, thoughtful album befitting a group that has practically become a byword for consistency.
Read Full Review >Prefix Magazine
There Is No Enemy does not offer new horizons for Built to Spill, but it does shine in a consistently good catalog.
Read Full Review >Alternative Press
As ever, Martsch prove capable of anthropomorphizing a bent string and imbuing it with more emotion than many bands' vocals and lyrics. [Dec 2009, p.112]
musicOMH.com
Listeners who enjoy acts such as The Flaming Lips, Pavement, Dinosaur Jr, Superchunk and Neil Young would also enjoy Built To Spill. No, really, they would. And There Is No Enemy would be a pretty good place for those listeners to begin their investigations.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone
Those seeking the naive concision of earlier records will be disappointed: Most songs sprawl near five minutes or longer. But their components are all about simple melodic beauty, writ large--prog-rock for pop purists.
Read Full Review >The New York Times
He packs every song with parts--low, midrange and high guitars, vocal la-las and ahs--and all the layers can make the songs overstuffed and woolly, particularly the slow ones. But diligence is one way to fight complacency, and Mr. Martsch’s plaintive cantankerousness keeps breaking through.
Read Full Review >No Ripcord
While we sit here wishing for that next sublime Built To Spill album, There Is No Enemy serves as a good fix to hold us on over.
Read Full Review >Slant Magazine
With the talent on display here, there's every reason to believe that the man will deliver another classic Built to Spill record someday. This isn't one, but in its best moments (and many of it's merely good moments), you'll be surprised at how little you mind.
Read Full Review >PopMatters
There Is No Enemy is not a return to form. It’s a re-imagining of a band’s distinct and timeless sound.
Read Full Review >Under The Radar
Even if the album as a whole isn't as eminently loveable as, say, "Keep It Like A Secret," though, there's still plenty to love here. [Fall 2009, p.57]
Tiny Mix Tapes
Taken as a whole, There Is No Enemy is a solid album on par with the band’s more recent output.
Read Full Review >Mojo
The album's seven-minute epics, Done and Tomorrow, chase their melodies to powerfully dramatic heights, pocket symphonies that stir and haunt with graceful, emotive crescendos that beg lighters waved aloft. [Feb 2010, p. 104]
Uncut
This is a soundscape bordered by The Flaming Lips and the Pixies, and mapped with verve. [Mar 2010, p.81]
What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this album is 9.6 (out of 10) based on 18 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
