Built to Spill: 'Perfect' vs. 'Keep it Like a Secret'

In America
every puddle
gasoline rainbow

From "Nowhere Nothing Fuckup", Ultimate Alternative Wavers, which is definitely not their best by a longshot, but man that is a good line. I like Nothing Wrong With Love best.

Okay, I need some feedback here: am I just in a hopelessly romantic mood right now, or is "As long as it's talking with you / Talk of the weather will do" an absolutely perfect lyric?

whereas 'perfect from now on' had had a great impact on me as it was *the* album that first got me into indie rock back in '97.

Upon listening to Perfect From Now On, most of indie rock is really disappointing.

xpost: Yes, that could be Cole Porter or something.

they played 'nowhere nothing...' the other night when i saw them! very pleasant surprise.

and bernard yeah, that's a great line from a song that's a fitting closer to an under-appreciated record

and yeah, kingkong, 'perfect...' really does set the benchmark for majestic guitar-based indie rock.

so this band is offically my soundtrack for the beginning of 2008.

welcome 2008.

I'm kind of amazed that there isn't more outright anti-BtS contrarianism on this thread.

well in that case, let me be the first to say it: i fucking hate this band.

do u have a favorite band? who is it? curious

Low

no offense or anything to BtS, i just don't like that sorta indie-guitar rock.

tks

"you thought of everything
but some things can't be thought"

always makes me smile :)

"Both are great but Keep Like A Secret starts higher and peters out more near the end. Perfect is more consistent overall so I'll probably give it the nod" is very OTM

plus 'perfect' is phenomenal at the end

I must give major props to "Velvet Waltz" off of Perfect From Now On, still my favorite BTS song.

I still like Keep it Like a Secret just as much, with There's Nothing Wrong With Love. I want to like the live album, but it reminds me too much of the one time I saw BTS live, which was sort of like a sped up version of watching an old man lose the ability to grip his hammer, and then die.

"Both are great but Keep Like A Secret starts higher and peters out more near the end. Perfect is more consistent overall so I'll probably give it the nod" is very OTM

-- stevie, Tuesday, March 25, 2008 11:37 AM (4 days ago) Bookmark Link

By OTM, do you mean "Opposite of The Money"? The last three songs on KILAS are impeccable.

keep it like a secret always feels perfect.

purrrrrrrfect.

the guitar bridge in the middle of Sidewalk is great

Else is painful to listen to

a frightening prelude to You Were Right.

whoas. Broken Chairs is a ridiculous closer. the vocals just hang in the air.

wtf ;D

Long time since I listened to Keep it Like a secret, not so long for Perfect from Now On. For me Perfect is Perfect because each song is like aa epic story without being prog- it is coherent and massive- works as a whole gigantic album. Keep it like a secret is more varied and feels far more inconsistent.I was extremely disappointed at the time. I guess I had Built to Spill pigeoned as a group who wrote monumental tracks which felt both pop-like and also quite symphonic. There is daylight between these two records for me and i am interested in why so many people seem to love "Keep it." there no right or wrong answer of course but this one just seems so obvious. have all you Keep it people listened well to perfect from now on
. Also all those people who love Keep It Like a secret- did you like this before you heard Perfect from Now on? For me it was the other way round and like a favourite pet maybe it is hard to give up your first love.

I heard Keep It Like A Secret long before Perfect From Now On and it's by far my favorite Built to Spill record. I have all the other ones but honestly listen to to this one 95% of the time and all the others 5%.

I really should listen to Perfect more.

Thats what I'm trying to say. My theory is that all the Fans of Keep it like a Secret were first to this record and second to Perfect from Now on. Maybe it depends on which one you listened to first.

well Keep It is the first and only that i've heard. i can't remember if i got Perfect or something else after, but it doesn't matter cuz this girl stole it.

what should i get now???

Perfect From Now On!

their best, "There's Nothing Wrong With Love"

I've always said There's Nothing Wrong with Love was my fave, but I'm starting to wonder if Secret aged better.

perfect perfect perfect perfect perfect. perfect.

voted "there's nothing wrong with love"

They played Perfect in its entirety last month here in Brussels, and right after "Untrustable" (I mean RIGHT after, they didn't even stop for the applause) they played "In Your Mind" from Ancient Melodies. I always thought it was the best song from that album, but it was a bit weird to hear it so closely connected to Perfect.

During the encore we got "Car", which was a nice treat as well :)

BTW, my vote goes to Perfect.

They played Perfect in its entirety last month here in Brussels

fuck fuck fuck this was in london two weeks ago. why don't i check live listings? fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck.

I actually don't think I've heard Perfect From Now On. I own Keep It Like A Secret but I never got into it. I like There's Nothing Wrong With Love and Ultimate Alternative Wavers a lot more.

Thanks for the post. I didn't realize Keep It was so highly regarded, the CD's been sitting around the back of my collection. Somehow I got it confused with Ancient Melodies which I found very disappointing.

No one likes "Broken Chairs"? This is one of my favorite songs on this album.

it's an OK song but it has one of the most torturously long fadeouts ever

Keep It is really the only Built To Spill i fuck with at all, I saw one of the shows where they did Perfect last year and just kept thinking about how much i'd like to hear the other album instead.

^

The song broken chairs is credited in the liner notes to "uhuru black". I'm pretty sure this is noy a black uhuru song though, right?

I just got into these guys, and I really like _KILAS_. With the exception of "Randy", _Perfect_ seems completely unremarkable to me.

there's nothing wrong w/ love is my favorite by a good amount, though i think "liar" is my favorite song by them

great song, no doubt

'The song broken chairs is credited in the liner notes to "uhuru black". I'm pretty sure this is noy a black uhuru song though, right?'

Uhuru Black was a Built To Spill roadie who died shortly before Keep It Like A Secret was recorded. He wrote the words, they turned it into a song as a tribute to him.

That's cool. Makes me like the song better. But it's still one of the rare BTS songs that goes on too long.

The only Built to Spill album I'm super-familiar with is Keep It Like a Secret, which I like quite a bit. I've heard a smattering of songs from other albums, but until recently I hadn't heard Perfect From Now On. It's ... fine, I guess? I mean, I get that Built to Spill is basically an indie-rock jam band and the sprawl is often what it's about, but I wish these songs also had the memorable hooks of Keep It Like a Secret, which strikes me as a far superior album for its balance. Amusing to me -- though maybe it shouldn't be -- that Ned rates this album so highly.

I think Perfect From Now On is their best record, but they seem to disagree. I think that tour a few years ago where they played it in its entirety was their way of retiring it. When I saw them in 2010 they only played one song from it, and when I saw them this year they didn't play anything from it. Closed this year's set with what felt like a 30 minute version of "Broken Chairs", though.

i think if you're familiar with the sprawl first, perfect is sort of hits-plus-filler in comparison

i mean secret is hits-plus-filler, sorry

I missed KILAS the first time so it was a real pleasure discovering it two summers ago.