E major · Camelot 12B · 94 BPM
Carry the Zero
by Built to Spill
- 94
- BPM
- E major
- Key
- 12B
- Camelot
- 27
- Danceability
- 1
- Acousticness
Built to Spill recorded "Carry the Zero" for their fourth studio album, Keep It Like a Secret, released in 1999. The track came out that year as the album's second single through Warner Bros. Records, and an extended play of the same name followed. That EP was the band's first solo EP since the 1995 split release Built to Spill Caustic Residin. Keep It Like a Secret became the first Built to Spill album to chart on the Billboard 200 in the United States, and it placed in the top 50 of Pitchfork's Top 100 Albums of the 1990s list alongside the group's earlier records There's Nothing Wrong with Love and Perfect from Now On.
In the song, frontman Doug Martsch extends a mathematical metaphor to depict a disaffected relationship. It went on to become perhaps the band's most popular song and remains a celebrated standard at their concerts. The track has also reached a generation of indie musicians: Frances Quinlan covered it on their 2020 album Likewise, and Michelle Zauner of Japanese Breakfast revealed it was the first song she learned on guitar.
Built to Spill had formed in Boise, Idaho, in 1992, centered on Martsch as the only permanent member. Martsch originally imagined the band with a changing set of backing musicians for each album, but settled into a stable lineup for over a decade before returning to his original plan in 2012.
Carry the Zero runs at 94 BPM, the tempo of hip-hop, R&B and reggaeton. In classical terms it sits in andante territory. A bar of 4/4 lasts 2.55 seconds, and a quarter-note delay is 638 ms. It is in E major, Camelot 12B, which shares its notes with C# minor and mixes cleanly with A major and B major.
We use multiple sources as part of our online research for the song story including Wikipedia.