Doug Martsch: Now You Know (2/25/2024)

Doug Martsch: Now You Know [Up/Warner Bros., 2002] The Built To Spill bandleader's only solo album to date is probably the closest his music will come to easy listening. No, seriously. For a songwriter whose hallmark tends to be noisy, distorted guitar solos, this is a new sound. Rather than churn out some more Built To Spill, of which he is the musically the main focus of anyways, he broke out his guitar slide and had some fun. The album's mainly acoustic blues sound offers some pros and cons to Martsch's impressive catalogue, but mainly, this is the sound of relaxation, which is a much-needed emotion in his catalogue.

Despite his skill with the guitar, Now You Know faces a problem repeatedly: Martsch isn't Robert Johnson. The album's music is good for the most part, but the contrast between his work here, and, let's say, There's Nothing Wrong With Love, Built To Spill's 1994 opus, is strange at best. Martsch's intensely personal lyrics and guitar-hero chops are absent for the most part here, save for the intensely personal but also sometimes intensely boring "Heart - Things Never Shared," the opener "Offer," which lyrically recalls Martsch's work with Built To Spill, and the guitar work on "Impossible," which is the seven-minute epic that he had to put on the album. Despite this contrast, Martsch's music manages to win over the listener. Tracks like "Gone," "Stay," and "Window," the album's best song, manage to win the listener over. Despite being not exactly serviceable for anyone looking for another "In The Morning" or "Three Years Ago Today," what makes Now You Know unique is that Martsch's passion for the music comes through every time. Sometimes it's okay to go with the flow. [6.3/10]