I owe Built To Spill an apology. The tag line running through my head in the days leading up to this review was “can a band suffer the sophomore slump on their seventh release?” There Is No Enemy seemed to suffer from the classic symptoms of said slump: similar but weaker tunes embellished with a few more studio bells and whistles but no real chances taken. But, while preparing to write this review and crystallize my opinions, a funny (but, in retrospect, not unexpected) thing happened, the album began to make sense.

Built To Spill’s previous effort, You In Reverse,, came after a pretty long hibernation and was so stripped down and loose that it felt like the band was starting all over again. The first run through There Is No Enemy felt long. Subsequent listens felt tired. Even the up-tempo tunes seemed to be lacking a sense of urgency. I was ready to label this record possibly the harshest and, to me, saddest word I could use to describe one of my favorite bands: boring. But all of a sudden the songs began bearing weight, the little studio touches enhanced the sound, the emotion returned to Doug Martsch’s voice, and I chastised myself for not knowing better.

Built To Spill was never a band with an immediate sound. Doug Martsch basically occupies the other side of the Neil Young coin as J Mascis. Whereas J wants to rip a hole through you with his guitar, Doug is more interested in bathing you in his. Often this requires patience. 1997′s Perfect From Now On is eight long, dense, slow, swirling, beautiful songs. Upon first listen I knew it was something special but what made it so special is the way it slowly revealed itself listen after listen. For some reason I expected, after slowly absorbing six albums before, to be able to absorb There Is No Enemy quickly. Therefore, I mistook its languid quality for lazy and horns and keyboards as filler for songs not fully fleshed out or catchy. I was completely misguided.

There Is No Enemy is every bit as good as You In Reverse. In fact, it is perhaps the perfect follow up for all the reasons I initially thought it to be a misstep. It’s not lazy, but it’s a bit sad. The restraint on a song like “Hindsight,” that initially felt like a lack of energy, eventually made sense in the full context of what is a rather somber album. Return to it the track in that context and the song really evolves into something quite beautiful. The consistency of sound that at first made the album feel flat soon began to wash over me. The la la la’s in “Life’s A Dream” no longer felt confusing but rather comforting. And the album as a whole now feels like a band in complete command of what they want to do.

I don’t know why I was in such a rush to judge when, clearly, Built To Spill were not. If it weren’t for this review I might have missed the Halo Benders-like cowboy jangle of “Good Ol’ Boredom,” or Martsch hearkening back to his Treepeople days on the short, punky “Pat,” or the immaculately placed horns on the immaculately beautiful “Things Fall Apart”.

After multiple listens, my original feelings on There Is No Enemy are gone, and now I won’t walk around arguing with my friends about how boring is the new Built To Spill. Fortunately, I get to avoid that humiliation, and I get to apologize to Built To Spill for not believing what I should have already known. Patience really is a virtue, especially when it comes to this album. Good things surely do come to those who wait, and I can only hope you learn from my mistake.