Keep It Like a Secret

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com's Best of 1999
Doug Martsch is enough of a guitar god to fill Keep It Like a Secret, one of indie rock's strongest 1999 major-label releases, with blazing solos. He's also ambivalent about the whole thing, which allows him to highlight the album with "You Were Right," a despairing litany of classic-rock lyrical hooks. --Rickey Wright --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Amazon.com essential recording
Most guitar heroes make their mark by doing something extravagant, like playing with their teeth or with their instrument in flames. Doug Martsch of Boise, Idaho's Built to Spill has acquired his guru status by simpler means--he combines his trippy, meandering guitar style with classic pop structures. Martsch also wins points for singing about small-scale moments as well as huge moral abstractions, from watching TV to contemplating the center of the universe. By subtly balancing the forest of... read more --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Keep It Like a Secret

Average customer rating:

My ears bled...... but in a good way.
It's a keeper
This album is god
Secretly the best indie band of the last 10 years.
The Best by the Best

Keep It Like a Secret
Built to Spill
Manufacturer: Warner Bros / Wea
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

Indie Rock | Indie & Lo-Fi | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

General | Rock | Styles | Music

Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music
Similar Items:

Perfect From Now On
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The Crane Wife

ASIN: B00000HZFH

Tracks:

The Plan
Center Of The Universe
Carry The Zero
Sidewalk
Bad Light
Time Trap
Else
You Were Right
Temporarily Blind
Broken Chairs

Amazon.com's Best of 1999

Doug Martsch is enough of a guitar god to fill Keep It Like a Secret, one of indie rock's strongest 1999 major-label releases, with blazing solos. He's also ambivalent about the whole thing, which allows him to highlight the album with "You Were Right," a despairing litany of classic-rock lyrical hooks. --Rickey Wright

Amazon.com essential recording

Most guitar heroes make their mark by doing something extravagant, like playing with their teeth or with their instrument in flames. Doug Martsch of Boise, Idaho's Built to Spill has acquired his guru status by simpler means--he combines his trippy, meandering guitar style with classic pop structures. Martsch also wins points for singing about small-scale moments as well as huge moral abstractions, from watching TV to contemplating the center of the universe. By subtly balancing the forest of dense guitars with Martsch's oddly prosaic yet uncannily beautiful singing, Built to Spill hold the rare achievement of making music that's rooted yet allows you to fly. "Time Trap" begins with a harplike guitar line floating above a heavy wave of distortion, drifts into a reggae pattern, and eventually rises to the high step of musical theater. The charming and funny "You Were Right" decides once and for all which of the classic-rock clichés ring true. "You were wrong when you said, 'Everything's going to be all right' / You were right when you said, 'We're all just bricks in the wall.'" It is a richly deserved analysis from alt rock's heroic Everyman. --Lois Maffeo

Customer Reviews:

My ears bled...... but in a good way........2007-06-08

Bought the CD on a recommendation from a friend that I trust... and once the disc was in my car playing... I pretty much just broke the player so the disc can never be ejected. It's on a perpetual loop.... and i'm good with it. Finally someone who knows how to write a lyric and make it pleasant to listen to. Read all the rest of the reviews if you wanna know what it sounds like... Yeah, it's the thinking man's Nirvana... yes it's the Radiohead knock-off that will actually get you laid... but more than that (if there is more than that ever)... it's just good music and you find yourself veering off the road saying "Damn, this is a good disc!". Enjoy. And congrats to Built to Spill.

It's a keeper.......2007-05-24

After my third listen today to this album I felt the need to write this review. It is interesting that the reviewers who didn't like this album generally liked "Perfect From Now On." I think the other BTS albums are fair to good, but I consider "Keep It Like a Secret" to be a masterpiece. The chord progressions and the layered guitar work bring a deep sweetness to the music. The songs are groovy, rocking, and mellow all at the same time. I'm not talking about incredible speed like Yngwie; it's that he does it just right and it sounds fantastic. Go ahead and say that he's not that great of a guitarist. It's just like the joke about how many guitarists does it take to screw in a light bulb: twenty one. One to screw it in and twenty to say, "I can do that." I am very glad I investigated this band further. This is their best album, and one of the best albums I have ever heard. It has five or six songs that are excellent, whereas one might consider an album with three or four decent songs to be a "good" album. The next time I go to my part time job at night I am going to play this cd accordingly: track 1, volume 9; track 2, volume 8, tracks 3 and 4, volume 10, and I'll have to see after that.

This album is god.......2006-10-06

No words for "Keep it Like a Secret." Hands-down one of the greatest albums of the 1990's. Doug Martsch is a god. I just saw them live for the first time last week and it was incredible. Opened with "The Plan" and closed with a heartbreaking version of "Carry the Zero." Magnificant.

Secretly the best indie band of the last 10 years........2006-03-10

Doug Martsch had already been fooling around in Treepeople and the slightly legendary Halo Benders before 1994's instant classic 'There's nothing wrong with love' came out. This album had some great songs, riddled with melancholy and full of melody.

Succesor 'Perfect From Now On' had it's moment but was not near as good. And then this album came out and Doug was back.

'The Plan' blasts from the speakers and is the perfect opening song with a great simmering ending with at least one great sliding gutiar note. 'Centre of the Universe' is a fresher song followd by the rolling 'Carry the Zero', again with a great ending in which the song completely changes with breaks, new melodies and new sounds.

Martsch shows that besides writing a basic good song there is more you can add before the guitar solos get too boring and longwinded, something the previous album suffered from somehow.

Other favorites are 'Else' based on a simple but effective bass line and the brilliant 'You Were Right' (spot the songs).

Together with Lou Barlow, J Mascis, Frank Black and Evan Dando Doug Martsch is one of the heroes of late 90's, early 00's guitar orientated indie-style rock. Even though it's on Warner he still maintained that status. A legend in the making, like his hero Neil Young. A perfect album that after 8 years I can still listen to every day.

The Best by the Best.......2006-01-25

Simply put, Keep it Like a Secret is the culmination of the greatest three album run in indie rock history.

My story with this album is something like MWM's just below. It's a little embarassing but it must be told. I bought this album when it came out in '99. Somehow, I didn't get it. Somehow, I stopped listening to it almost immediately. And somehow, I eventually sold it back. It wasn't until 5 years later that I got back into BTS via There's Nothing Wrong With Love. I quickly got every BTS recording including obscure stuff like the BTS/Caustic Resin EP. Having seen them in NYC last year, I feel comfortable now calling them my favorite band.

I too regret my lost time with this band, but my failure to connect immediately with them is not a random thing. This stuff comes at your ear from a different direction than you may be used to and it MUST be listened to several times before you start to get it. You hear the word "angular" used a lot to describe BTS and whatever that means it seems to convey this facet of their music. Great music is often uncomfortable to hear the first time and BTS was because it truly is something different, an advance in the history of rock music.

Humorously enough, my brother, who has similar musical taste to me is caught where I was 5 years back. He owns this one and never spins it. I burned him There's Nothing Wrong With Love and Perfect From Now On and he shrugged them off after one listen. Dude, if you're reading this, get into this band already.

For those new to BTS, this is a great place to start. There are definitely moments on their previous two albums that I would consider my favorites (Car, Big Dipper, I Would Hurt a Fly), but this is probably their most consistent and accessible album overall.

This band tends to be compared to Sonic Youth, Modest Mouse and Pavement, but if you're like me, you find those bands either too avant garde, too angry or too arch (respectively) to truly love them and setlle for liking them instead. While similar, Built to Spill are humble and earnest enough to connect with emotionally and they are adventurous and experimental without resorting to pointless noise. Get this, then go to town on their whole catalog, then wait breathlessly for "You in Reverse" in April.

Average customer rating:

GET OUT OF A BAD MOOD!!!!!!!
Pure Energy

Songs from the Silver Screen
Judy Kaye , Jason Graae , Gene de Paul , Rupert Holmes , Harry Warren , Jerome Kern , Hoagy Carmichael , Sammy Fain , Andre Previn , Irving Berlin , Friedrich Hollander , Richard A. Whiting , Steve Orich , and Leslie Bricusse
Manufacturer: Varese Sarabande
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Movie Scores | Soundtracks | Styles | Music

Movie Soundtracks | Soundtracks | Styles | Music

General | Soundtracks | Styles | Music

General | Vocal Pop | Pop | Styles | Music
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Release Date: 1998-02-24

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Seven Brides For Seven Brothers: Wonderful, Wonderful
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Customer Reviews:

GET OUT OF A BAD MOOD!!!!!!!.......2006-01-17

THIS CD PUTS A SMILE ON MY FACE EVERYTIME I HEAR IT! JUDY KAYE IS A MOST UNDERUTILIZED TALENT ON THE BROADWAY SCENE, AND THIS CD PROVES IT. CLICK THIS RECORDING INTO YOUR CART THIS INSTANT!

Pure Energy.......2000-09-17

What an incredible recording! What energy, what a fantastic voice! The songs, many of which are rarely recorded, are presented in a wonderful upbeat and stylish mood. It's almost impossible not to love this CD. Her tributes to the greats of the silver screen are very witty and yet not overly campy. Judy manages to almost one up Carmen Miranda, with her Carmen Tribute. I must say I never really liked the song "Thanks alot, but no thanks" until I heard Judy's version. This CD will leave you exhausted but with lots of happy memories. It will also leave you wishing that Judy Kaye recorded more often!!

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