"There Is No Enemy" is the latest album from Influential U.S indie veterans Built To Spill. It took founder Doug Martsch three years to write, re-write, tweak, undo, edit, repeat, repeat, repeat... Oh, and did I mention taking out all the guitar parts, digitally un-mixing them and replacing them with the original takes because they had a better feel? Three years of day-long studio binges and manic perfectionism like this and you'd expect fucking War Of The Worlds, right? Well, to be fair, three years is actually a fairly average stop-gap - after all, it's no Chinese Democracy. But after such unscrupulous and painstaking editing, one would perhaps expect something that transcends steady footing or already occupied territory. "There Is No Enemy" however, plays it all rather safe.

That's not to say it's bad by any means, or even that it's particularly boring - though the last few numbers seem hell-bent on slowing your heart rate - it's just that it's not that exciting either, and when given the sheer effort put into it by Martsch, it's hard to understand what exactly it was he was doing, or why it took him so long. Whatever it was, Martsch's frustration almost resulted in him cutting the record short, and even disowning it. However, even for the few gems that do manage to shine through, his perseverance has in fact seemed to have paid off, to some extent.

'Aisle 13' and 'Hindsight' are the standard-bearers, with swirling keys, crunching guitars and infinitely charming vocals permeating their catchy choruses - one swift clip of the latter is enough to assert Built To Spill's title as progenitors of contemporary American indie (sounds so much like Death Cab... it's eerie). After the stomping 'Good Ol Boredom', 'Life's a Dream' leads the album into a slowly grinding shift in momentum that occasionally recalls the more sterile moments on Dinosaur Jr's 'Farm' - guitars sounding like they're just planted there without really breaking through or enhancing the songs.

Again, it's not that any of this is particularly awful or incredibly hard to listen to - as a matter of fact it makes a perfect casual background listen, with it's occasionally dreamy textures lulling you in and out of a state of pure distraction - it's just that it's all a little underwhelming. Let's just hope that after finally letting this album see the light of day, the pay-off for Martsch (and co.) will be the energy to take the next one in his stride.