Built to Spill - When the Wind Forgets Your Name

Doug Martsch doesn't move fast, and When the Wind Forgets Your Name proves it's worth the wait. Released in 2022, it's Built to Spill's eighth full-length and their first album since 2015's Untethered Moon, marking a genuine milestone as the band's first release for Sub Pop after decades of mutual admiration between Martsch and the label.

The record's backstory shapes everything about how it sounds. In 2018, Martsch connected with Brazilian musicians Le Almeida and João Casaes, both members of the psychedelic jazz rock band Oruã, after falling for their music and recruiting them for shows in Brazil. The chemistry stuck, and the trio toured the US and Europe together through 2019 before tracking bass and drums for the album at Martsch's rehearsal space in Boise. Martsch layered guitars and vocals on top, and the group finished mixing collaboratively from afar, a genuinely international, long-distance process that shows up in the record's range. Alongside Built to Spill's signature poetic lyricism, the songs stretch from guitar-driven odes indebted to R.E.M. and Dinosaur Jr. to bluesy, '60s-style anthems and dub reggae-inflected passages, all held together by Martsch's careful, detail-oriented arranging.

It's a record that expands the Built to Spill sound without losing what's made the band a reliable source of great guitar rock for nearly three decades, and it stands as one of the more rewarding entries in a catalog defined by patience over prolificacy.

This vinyl LP pressing comes in a gatefold jacket, a fitting presentation for a Built to Spill record thirty years in the making with this label. Well worth adding to any indie rock collection.