Britt Daniel is a monster. Or is beast the correct term? Whatever. The point is, the front-man and guitarist behind indie-powerhouse Spoon is one hell of a songwriter no matter how you put it.
A longtime cult-favorite of Austinites (the band’s hometown) and everyone who was pompous enough to consider themselves “in the know,” Spoon has recorded some of the best and most underrated albums of the past decade.
Now with the release of their new record “Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga,” the band seems finally poised to take over the world. Or at least sell out a few more clubs than usual.
When I was first introduced to Spoon about four months ago (I know, I’m really on top of things), I had absolutely no idea who they were. And as I more or less accidentally started listening to the album “Kill The Moonlight” over the summer I became completely obsessed.
After hearing tracks like the Velvet Underground and Echo and the Bunnymen-infused “All the Pretty Girls Go to the City,” I got the sort of chills usually reserved for first kisses and car wrecks.
So understandably and admittedly, I came to the new record with high expectations. But, luckily, Daniel and crew had no intentions of letting anyone (including themselves) down. “Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga” stands as a bold testament to the fact that a band can be experimental and even down right weird while still sticking to traditional song structures.
Tracks like the groovy, bass-laden, bonfire beach hymn “Don’t You Evah” don’t seem too impressive at first, but take a harder listen. The magic is there.
In fact, that’s part of why this record works so well. What at first seems to be an outright rigid refusal to push their music even further beyond boundaries established on past albums, is actually just the opposite. In reality, Spoon is doing what they do best: reinventing their sound.
The band caters to no one’s interests other than their own in the process. But it works beautifully. Tracks like the dark and moody, Police-tinged “Eddie’s Ragga” create the illusion of accidentally wandering into a studio just in time to catch a spontaneous and unforgettable jam.
This is the kind of unexpected surprise “Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga” is ripe with, and just another reason to listen to the entire thing, absorbing all of it as a whole. Trust me on this one, you’ll thank me.
While the album may not be their best yet, it fits in quite well with the band’s past efforts. And definitely better than its predecessor, the uneven, yet sometimes brilliant, “Gimme Fiction.”
Spoon sounds as if they’ve never had this much fun before and still remain as unhinged and poetic as ever. This is especially obvious on the tune “Rhthm and Soul,” which finds Spoon building its sound around devo-influenced synthesizers while using Daniel’s poetic cut-up lyrics and slick delivery as an imaginary backbone for the song. Lines like “tract houses/square couches/short legs and square shoulders/pot holders/ egg and soldiers/ your tank rollers/ you all know this” are an instrument unto themselves. It’s all a close-to-perfect balance.
Really the only complaint I can even think to bring up, other than the troublesome new track (and a future single) “The Ghost of You Lingers,” is this band is going to keep putting out good music, and I’ll be forced to keep buying it.
But with a sound this inventive and songs that both tug on the heart strings (the album closer is a new classic) and get you doing that whole embarassing head-bobbing thing (“Finer Feelings” is so catchy it just kills me ), who needs to complain at all?
