Relish Spins

Built to Spill

There Is No Enemy

Label: Warner Bros.

If you like: Pink Floyd

Song to download: "Oh Yeah"

It may be that There Is No Enemy, but Built to Spill's latest album has such a melancholy vibe, there may as well be.

Decidedly darker than 2006's You In Reverse, the Boise, Idaho, quintet tones down its trademark guitar-driven rock on its seventh CD.

Enemy is still a rock record, but the tempos are taken down a touch to carry frontman Doug Martsch's musings on mortality and the meaning of life.

He opens "Done" with "Loneliness is getting hard to perceive/Seems it never comes or it never leaves," and closes with a refrain of "It's already done, it's already done."

"It doesn't matter if you're good or smart," he sings on "Things Fall Apart," a languid tune punctuated by a lone happy horn.

But all is not hopeless. Guitarists Brett Netson and Jim Roth, bassist Brett Nelson and drummer Scott Plouf get upbeat on "Good of Boredom" as Martsch sings, "Most of my dreams have come true." On "Nowhere Lullaby," a slow track rich with reverb, he concludes "everyone gets through the night and everyone wakes up all right."

He takes the sentiment further on the album's cheeriest track, "Planting Seeds": "We can make it if we try/If we don't it's still all right/Because your mind is still alive."

Martsch's high-pitched voice is downright haunting on "Oh Yeah," a track marked by dramatic drums that melts into a psychedelic guitar-driven interlude reminiscent of vintage Pink Floyd.

There Is No Enemy, but according to Built to Spill, there's still plenty to think about.

Backstreet Boys

This Is Us

Label: Jive Records

If you like: Bland pop

Song to download: "Bye Bye Love"

½

The newest CD from the Backstreet Boys features a number of uptempo, club-sounding songs -- but the weak effort from this quartet won't have you running to the dance floor.

This Is Us, the group's seventh studio album, is full of boring, uneventful tracks -- though such hit-making producers as RedOne, T-Pain, Jim Jonsin and Ryan Tedder help out.

What may be most disappointing is that Swedish producer Max Martin -- who helmed such classic grooves for the boy band as "I Want it That Way" and "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)" -- fails to present anything as addictive on This Is Us.

"Straight Through My Heart," the lead single, is too average, as is "She's a Dream," a poorly written love tale.

The group should have recorded more songs with Claude Kelly, Soulshock and Karlin. Those producers work on "Bye Bye Love" and "If I Knew Then," the only standouts on the dragging This Is Us.

Grant-Lee Phillips

Little Moon

Label: Yep Roc

If you like: Folk rock

Song to download: "Good Morning Happiness"

½

Little Moon is mostly sunny. Grant-Lee Phillips' new album opens with the cheerful, jaunty "Good Morning Happiness," which hits the spot like a first cup of coffee. He closes with "The Sun Shines on Jupiter," a bit of vaudeville that playfully complains about the "sweater weather" there.

Phillips also sings a delicate lullaby, a swaggering love song and a drinking tune that pleads for peace. It's all captivating, in part because Phillips' voice has the powerful pull of a well-stoked fireplace on a chilly fall evening -- warm, hypnotic and a little smoky.

Much of the album was recorded live by a crack band, which reinforces the relaxed mood.

"Older Now" is both poignant and funny. Over piano and strings, the 45-year-old Phillips sings about mistakes, regrets and angels.

"Blind Tom" sweetly portrays a pianist and suggests that songs travel on the wind for those who know how to listen. Maybe that's where Phillips gets this good stuff.

Mike Doughty

Sad Man Happy Man

Label: ATO

If you like: More folk rock

Song to download: "I Keep on Rising Up"

½

Mike Doughty took some heat from a few longtime fans for the bright pop he used to great effect on his last outing, Golden Delicious. Not one to ignore those who have stuck by him for 15 years, Doughty doesn't disguise the fact that he's catering to fans on his latest, Sad Man Happy Man.

Slightly darker in tone than Delicious and relying heavily on his syncopated acoustic guitar -- though Andrew "Scrap" Livingston provides some nice work on cello -- Doughty's wit still shines through his nasal, hip-hop vocal style.

On "I Keep On Rising Up," Doughty gets playfully sexual without being crass, while on the jazzy "He's Got The Whole World In His Hands" his abstract lyrics are reminiscent of his Soul Coughing days. The folk-rock diversity goes from dark ("I Want To Burn You Down") to soaring ("Year Of The Dog") and is rounded out by tight grooves ("Pleasure On Credit") and jangling love songs ("Diane").

His fans can agree on this: Mike Doughty's unique stylings are not to be missed.