Spoon - They Want My Soul (2014)

wait so does that mean that the inevitable transition is over and there are in fact no more guitar rock bands?!

iirc at least three of the songs on this new record feature little to no guitar AT ALL wtf

so who's this other Spoon on Spotify?

that's an actual lowercase-s spoon that does this interesting synth-didge tribal EDM thing

Spewn

Transference is pretty great. Whoever said that was otm. Gimme Fiction is the only album I don't really care for, I think.

Think again. I'm sure you care for it deeply! Give it another shot.

ha, I plan to give it another shot. I think I was damaged by the PMF they headlined around that time.

this actually fits spoon pretty well

http://www.invisibleoranges.com/2014/08/critic-proof-bands/

except that their lyrics are (cryptically) 'emotional', which is what makes them serviceable as lifestyle music for the educated indie set

they've kind of got a thing for putting momentum-killing numbers up front in their tracklists huh

Inside Out is my favorite track of the album, so I don't know if I agree.

I agree insofar as "Rent I Pay" is by some distance my least favorite thing on it

well, kill was the wrong term, but for as uptempo a band as they are, the 2/3 slots on their last few tend to slow things down strikingly early

when are they covering 'ege bamyasi'?

Wow this gets pretty boring after the first few songs

ya the end of 'they want my soul' with the hard panned guitars is cool but nothing else really stuck with me

"New York Kiss" is my favorite tune besides "Outlier" but yeah

aw go back to yr national records yall ungrateful so and sos

haha the national are fucking boring. i love spoon, i'm sure i'll come around. i really liked 'transference'.

"I Just Don't Understand" is the only track that's actually bad, most of it just seems like generic late-period Spoon.

and that's the cover song, right?

They've fallen into this rut of midtempo tunes with a heavy plodding basic 4/4 beat which sometimes works but they could stand to try something different imo

"I Just Don't Understand" is the only track that's actually bad, most of it just seems like generic late-period Spoon.

― Immediate Follower (NA),

It was so bad on first listen that I was relieved to learn it was a cover.

They've fallen into this rut of midtempo tunes with a heavy plodding basic 4/4 beat which sometimes works but they could stand to try something different imo

― Immediate Follower (NA), Tuesday, August 5, 2014 11:44 AM (31 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This is why I've always hated Beck.

But that doesn't seem like an accurate description of Beck? I mean, like him or not, his past handful of albums have all sounded pretty different from each other, even if they are all reheats of stuff he's done better before.

can I enjoy the national and spoon?

no

yikes "my bad" guys

I love the National and love Spoon, but I think the last National record was one of its best and this one is ... not bad at all, but sort of ... tentative? Both bands have their thing down, though.

But that doesn't seem like an accurate description of Beck? I mean, like him or not, his past handful of albums have all sounded pretty different from each other, even if they are all reheats of stuff he's done better before.

― Bus Sex Teen Busted After Queef Beef (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Tuesday, August 5, 2014 12:18 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Well, there is a good chance that I'm being unfair and don't have enough info, but I just remember all the songs I've heard fitting that description.

Anyway... back to Spoon. Kill The Moonlight still the favorite for me.

A few listens through, I think I actually prefer Transference? I mean, that record was so weird, and though definitely a grower, I've come to consider it a pretty substantial entry in the catalog. This new one is good - I just don't love it.

I think Transference is my second favorite Spoon album, but my favorite is Series of Sneaks, so I feel well out of the mainstream of Spoon fans.

yeah i don't get this anymore

they've gone from fractured to just pointless. this band meant everything to me when i was younger and i don't think they've written anything that really turned over in about 15 years

lol automotive metaphor

ok i'm not done with this yet but outlier is the goofiest thing they've ever written

to me this record seems to be minor spoon (just like ga x 5), while transference was major spoon, and i'll never understand why the vast majority of ppl seem to think the opposite.

oh lol i just got to the cover

GF is my favorite but it doesn't matter; it could be Ga5 or KTM. I like Transference these days.

Sometimes I want to hear more Spoon songs where Britt allows his guitar chords to ring out a bit more in the fashion of "Sister Jack" but hey they have their sound.

Though maybe they would sound too much like Teenage Fanclub or something huh.

Every time there's a Spoon discussion it ends up with album ranking. I think we've established that they have some of the least amount of consensus of "best album" of any band.

they are obviously accomplished career musicians so i think the more interesting question is always why discussions about them have so little traction

which i think probably has more to do with the way people listen to them than with much about the records

Every time a new Spoon record comes out, I listen to some or all of it once and then go dig out Telephono and A Series of Sneaks and remember that they were once a not-boring-actually-kind-of-great band.

xp they are sorta wallpaper-y, it's true... really pretty, high-end wallpaper tho

I think I saw them live once, touring on the back of Gimme Fiction, with the Clientele opening, but I honestly can't even remember?

Johnny Fever u mad??

Nah dawg, I just know what I like. If I had to hazard a guess, though, I think that experience with Elektra probably affected Britt in a way that made him write songs that idg anymore.

"First they came for the Pixies-wannabe guitar rock bands, & I said nothing, because it was 2000 & I was tired of that shit anyway. Next they came for the Wire & Gang of Four-wannabe guitar rock bands, & I said nothing, because Pitchfork needed to get off their dicks anyway. Then they came for the atmospheric post-rock guitar bands, & I said nothing, because really it was my wife who was the Friday Night Lights fan in our household."

Like, over time I realize the change from what Spoon began as to what Spoon is now was really gradual, but starting with Girls Can Tell it just seems like the moment had passed.