“Conventional Wisdom” is everything that’s wonderful about Built to Spill.

It begins with what is unarguably the best guitar riff of 2006. Seriously. Listen to that shit—that’s Doug Martsch in all his Idahoan outback beard rock genius. Once the hook sets, it’s impossible to get out of your head, and you’ll end up doing air guitar windmills in your underwear in your living room if you’re not careful.

Then there’s Martsch’s accelerated schoolboy quiver, singing somewhat platitudinous, somewhat vague, somewhat brilliant lyrics about… stuff. Life. “Some things never change/You can never chane that.” Makes you think a little.

Then it’s so long riff, hello astral traveling.

There’s a bridge at around the 2:30 mark that signals a shift away from the tightly-wound first third of the song. It’s a long transition, a slow buildup to the inevitable psych-rock crescendo that blows up at around 3:50. From there the song is all cosmic whirlwinds, the vocals left behind on Planet Earth while Marsch sends his guitar orbiting around the sun and back. The rhythm guitar follows eagerly, the bass keeps a steady pulse underneath, the drums collide and crash, and that weird cosmic whirlwind effect whooshes and swoons. Volume stacks on top of volume. And then fadeout.

I can’t wait for Thursday night.