You in Reverse comes at the end of a long wait.

It's been five years since Built to Spill released the album, Ancient Melodies of the Future, in 2001.

Since then, fellow northwestern bands Death Cab for Cutie and Modest Mouse have made impressions on the mainstream, though both of those bands have grown away from their indie-pop roots.

Built to Spill actually beat those bands to the major labels by years, jumping to Warner Bros. for its 1997 album Perfect From Now On. But it isn't the kind of band courting crossover hits, and the shortest song on that album was a five-minute mini-anthem.

The group has continued to use its major label days to develop its sound, reigning things in a bit but avoiding the traditional crossover single attempts. I'd even argue that the group's poppiest songs were ironically left on its last independent album, There's Nothing Wrong with Love, featuring indie classics like "Big Dipper" and "Twin Falls."

After such a long wait, expectations for the album have been set high, and the Boise, Idaho, natives do not disappoint with You in Reverse.

One of the only indie-rock acts of the '90s that hasn't broken up or dropped off, they've dropped an album that not only holds water with their back catalogue, but blows most of this year's new releases out of the water as well. (This might be the time to admit that I lived in Idaho for four years. But give me a break, it's not that often Idahoans get local bands to root for.)

Built to Spill comes roaring out of the gate with "Goin' Against Your Mind," and it's hard to imagine a better way for the band to have ended its long, quiet spell.

The nearly nine-minute epic is a reminder of all the best qualities of Built to Spill: epic but not overblown, complex but catchy, melodic and rocking all at once.

You in Reverse also shines on other rockers, like the back-to-back attack of "Wherever You Go" and "Conventional Wisdom" in the record's mid-section peak. The former sports a riff worthy of a vintage Crazy Horse stomper, furthering my theory that Doug Martsch is the indie reincarnation Neil Young.

The latter song is as energetic a piece of rock I've heard in years, and the lead guitar melody will get the song stuck in your head before the vocals even start.

The more mid-tempo numbers work just as well. Subtle touches like some glockenspiel on "Traces" and organ on "Gone" flesh out the arrangements, but as always, the focus is on Martsch. Indie rock is sometimes criticized for putting individuality and personality over technical ability, but Martsch is the genre's guitar god, crafting blistering solos without losing focus on melody and songwriting. The band seems equally inspired by the grand sound of classic rock bands as it does by the indie sounds.

Most songs feature stunning solos -- even album closer "The Wait," which starts off acoustic, morphs and develops until the electric guitar comes in to overpower everything and dominate the speakers.

In fact, most songs are absolutely brimming with ideas, hooks and tempo changes.

Most of the tunes feature enough riffs for a lesser band to stretch across three or four tracks, but Built to Spill manages to cram as much into each track as possible.

This is impressive for a band so far into its career and downright embarrassing compared to the laziness of some of the other guitar music out there.

In 2006, it's comforting to have a band that put out some of the '90s classic indie records still maintaining the same level of creativity and energy in its music.

And it's nice to know that a group of guys from Idaho can produce some of the year's best music with the standard rock lineup.

Grade: A