It seems as though the year 1994 was in desperate need of some TLC and a touch of electric distortion. Maybe this was because Forrest Gump had just been released in theaters or perhaps it was in the wake of Kurt Cobain’s tragic death - it remains a mystery. Nevertheless, the indie-rock band, Built to Spill, was clearly on a mission to deliver the reminder that everyone needed in their second studio album, There’s Nothing Wrong with Love.
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the album, and three decades later, the album’s youthful sound is still ringing. This year, it’s reverberating through concert venues across North America as lead singer Doug Martsch and his bandmates are celebrating the album’s birthday with a year-long tour in commemoration.
Aside from the festivities, the timeless album still serves as a fresh reminder of the beautiful complexities and simplicities of life and love to listeners today. Perhaps it’s the boyishly spry melodies, Doug Martsch's iconic whiny tone, or both. Needless to say, the album is a breath of fresh air both musically and lyrically.
The album’s third track, “Big Dipper”, starts on a youthful foot with the lyrics,
“Once when I was little someone pointed out to me / Some constellations but the big dipper’s all I could see / That brontosaurus must have stood a thousand miles high / That brontosaurus laying on its side up in the sky”
Martsch’s words strongly defies the expectations of what adulthood demands of us, choosing to see dinosaurs in the Big Dipper’s stars. His whining tone further shows that maybe we don’t have to grow up, at least not when we are listening to this album.
A highlight track, “Fling,” captures the ephemerality of adolescence with perfect precision. By blending forwardly candid lyrics with a more stratified instrumental, “Fling” reflects the simplicity of human connection and the inherent complexities that make it all the more complicated, fiery, and consuming.
The band’s lyrics are rudimentary and blunt, which is exactly what enables them to tell such a beautifully confusing side of love so truly. Take this line from Fling for example: “Since my fling with you, time went from popping off three times a day to popping off three times a week / And it takes me a long time to come to the memory of us” Maybe it’s the pining orchestral drone that backs the heartfelt lyrics, or maybe it’s just Martsch’s pure, boyish voice. Regardless, it’s hard for the listener’s heart to not melt when they hear these words.
Today, as Martsch and his band are well on their way on their 30th Anniversary tour for There’s Nothing Wrong With Love, its symbol of love and youth rings true in Martsch’s remarkably unchanged voice and admirably unchanged musical vision. It seems as though the album’s maxims are timeless in nature, as we all will never stop asking ourselves the same questions that the album’s song, “Cleo,” questions itself: “Ain’t it strange that I’m a human being? / Ain’t it strange that I can dream?”