Perfect From Now - Built To Spill | 50 Albums in 50 years | The Album That Opened the Door to a World of Indie Rock

“I will be perfect from now on. I will be perfect starting now.”

1. The Introduction: A Burned CD That Changed Everything

In the fall of 2003, I was just starting to dip my toes into indie music. As I’ve mentioned before, I’d recently discovered The Postal Service and was getting into Death Cab, The Shins, and some other indie bands. But things really blew open when my friend Chris Stori introduced me to Built To Spill. We were sitting next to each other on a ski trip bus ride, talking about music. A few weeks later, when we got back to school in January 2004, I showed up to find a burned copy of Perfect From Now On waiting for me in my business school “mailbox”. My musical world shifted again the moment I put that CD into my car stereo. It was like, 'Whoa, I didn’t know stuff like this even existed, and I love it.' That album didn’t just open the door—it practically kicked it down—and suddenly I was deep into guitar-driven indie rock, starting with Built To Spill and spreading into the world of Modest Mouse and other Pacific Northwest bands.

2. The Sound: A Sonic Experience Like No Other

Built to Spill’s Perfect From Now On isn’t just an album; it’s like an invitation to get lost in a maze of wild guitar riffs, trippy lyrics, and big, existential questions. Released in 1997, it’s this cool mix of indie rock and prog influences, but it never feels too polished or self-important. For me, though, the magic was less about the technical stuff and more about how it sounded—and how that sound made me feel.

3. The Moment of Discovery: Hooked on Existential Musings

The first time I heard Randy Described Eternity, I honestly don’t remember if it was in my car, on my home stereo, or on my computer. I just know that when those opening notes hit, I was instantly transported. Those opening notes hit, and suddenly I was picturing this massive, endless timeline that Martsch sings about—just this mind-bending concept of infinity wrapped in distortion. It wasn’t like the music I was used to. It wasn’t trying to be catchy or slick; it was like it was asking me to think, to feel weirdly small and curious at the same time. Looking back, I think that’s what hooked me: the existential musings. That feeling of standing at the edge of something so big you can’t wrap your brain around it.

4. The Chase: Seeking Out That Feeling Again

By the time I Would Hurt a Fly came on, I was all in. The creepy bassline, the dissonant guitars, the lyrics that felt like a mix of anger, resignation, and confusion—it was like someone had put all these weird, hard-to-name feelings into sound. I didn’t get all the references or the deeper meanings right away, but it didn’t matter. I just knew it felt different. It felt real.

After that, I started chasing that feeling. I went looking for more bands that had that same messy, emotional, guitar-driven vibe. Built To Spill also led me to Dinosaur Jr., Sebadoh, Guided By Voices, Dismemberment Plan, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Neutral Milk Hotel, Yo La Tengo, and so many more. I went looking for more bands that had that same messy, emotional, guitar-driven vibe. That’s when I found Modest Mouse, Pavement, Elliott Smith—bands that became cornerstones of my music obsession. But Built To Spill was the one that set it all in motion. Their songs didn’t follow the typical verse-chorus-verse blueprint; they wandered, stretched out, got weird—and I loved that.

5. The Album’s Contradictions: Long, Loose, and Hypnotic

And that’s kind of the thing with Perfect From Now On. It’s full of contradictions. The songs are long but never boring. The lyrics ask these big, heavy questions, but the music still feels loose and spontaneous. Take Velvet Waltz, for example. The guitars in that song feel like they’re floating, like you’re being pulled along by some invisible current. I remember listening to it one night with my headphones on, just lying there with my eyes closed, feeling like I was being transported somewhere far away. Not to get too dramatic, but it was the kind of experience that makes you realize how powerful music can be.

6. The Sound Over the Substance: A Different Kind of Connection

And then there’s Stop the Show. It’s like Martsch is pulling back the curtain on the whole idea of authenticity in music, asking what it even means to be 'real' when you’re performing. I was just starting to write about music around this time, and that song made me think about why certain songs or bands felt more genuine than others. It wasn’t about perfection—it was about the vibe, the rawness, the willingness to be vulnerable without trying too hard.

But honestly, I don’t think Perfect From Now On had an emotional core for me. It wasn’t like other albums where I could point to a specific theme or feeling that kept me coming back. With this one, it was all about the sound. The way the guitars swirled around each other, the way the distortion created this dreamy, slightly unhinged atmosphere—that’s what stuck with me. It didn’t matter if I fully understood the lyrics. The sound itself did the heavy lifting.

7. The Legacy: A Launching Pad for Musical Exploration

Over the years, I discovered other albums that hit me in a similar way—like The Lonesome Crowded West by Modest Mouse or Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain by Pavement—but Perfect From Now On was the starting point. It’s not really an album I go back to all the time, though. I mean, I do listen to it sometimes, but it feels more like a launching pad than a destination. It was the album that made me realize how much was out there beyond the mainstream stuff I’d grown up with. It got me excited to keep digging, to find more bands, more sounds, more of that indescribable feeling I got the first time I heard those opening chords.

8. The Lasting Impact: A Burned CD That Opened a Universe

That’s the thing about music, though, right? You never know what’s going to hit you until it does. And sometimes, if you’re lucky, a friend hands you a burned CD, and you end up with an album like Perfect From Now On that changes the way you hear everything else. For me, that’s what this album was: the beginning of a lifelong obsession with weird, guitar-heavy indie rock—and with the endless search for the next song that makes me feel like that person driving around in 2004, completely awestruck by a sound I didn’t even know existed until then.