Spoon - New Album

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Well damn, I've always been kind of lukewarm on this band, but I'll have to give this thing a spin.
 
Luke cold, not warm.

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Great album. Will have to see, but it may surpass Gax5 for me. It may depend on how tracks 7-9 grow on me. Right now they feel a little bit like filler, but still good. Love Inside Out and Outlier though.
 
Yeah right? This album is fantastic.


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Thanks for the heads up in the movie thread. :giggle:

I listened to it last night. I like all the songs except "I just don't understand". The first 7 tracks in particular are good. It's much better than the disappointing Broken Bells 2nd record.
 
Great album. Will have to see, but it may surpass Gax5 for me. It may depend on how tracks 7-9 grow on me. Right now they feel a little bit like filler, but still good. Love Inside Out and Outlier though.

I take it back re 7-9. This entire album kicks ass.
 
I originally planned to buy the digital version of this, but happened to be near a Best Buy and they had it for $9.99. So whatever.

For those of you who don't have the CD and liner notes, I found these three names in succession amidst the "Thanks" list: Kobe Bryant, Khaleesi, Emma Watson

Has GAF been hanging out with Britt Daniel & Co.?
 
I take it back re 7-9. This entire album kicks ass.

Can't believe anyone would find the title track to be filler even temporarily. Easily the standout for me on the album, probably its catchiest track as well.

An improvement over Transference obvs, but how much I'm not sure yet. Didn't totally grab me.
 
Can't believe anyone would find the title track to be filler even temporarily. Easily the standout for me on the album, probably its catchiest track as well.

It was a snap judgment after one listen. Has a bit of a throwback vibe at the beginning, but kicks in nicely after a minute. I like it, but there's probably 4-5 I like better. Loving Knock Knock Knock on headphones - lots of layering on that track.
 
It was a snap judgment after one listen. Has a bit of a throwback vibe at the beginning, but kicks in nicely after a minute. I like it, but there's probably 4-5 I like better.

It's my least favorite song on the album, so don't sweat it.
 
This is pretty good. Certainly better than Transference, but I wouldn't rank it higher than Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga just yet, just to stay with the last three albums.

Rainy Taxi is my favorite song so far.
 
This is pretty good. Certainly better than Transference, but I wouldn't rank it higher than Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga just yet, just to stay with the last three albums.

I listened to Gax5 and They Want My Soul back to back the other day, and as much as I love Ga, I do think They Want My Soul is better and more consistent. But that may just be the excitement of a new album. After all, Ga has Black Like Me, which I think may be their best track ever.
 
1. Girls Can Tell
2. GaGaGaGaGa
3. Kill the Moonlight
4. Gimme Fiction/They Want My Soul
6. A Series of Sneaks
7. Transference
8. Telephono
 
I listened to Gax5 and They Want My Soul back to back the other day, and as much as I love Ga, I do think They Want My Soul is better and more consistent. But that may just be the excitement of a new album. After all, Ga has Black Like Me, which I think may be their best track ever.

Tough call. Gax5 has a stronger opener and those first four tracks are all great, plus, it has Finer Feelings, which I think tops everything on the new one. While TWMS is being lauded for its experimentation and new sounds, The Ghost Of You Lingers was certainly a departure 2 albums ago.

Oddly enough I was underwhelmed by the lead singles off both albums (The Underdog and Do You) only to really like the albums themselves.

TWMS has a stronger back half from where I'm at now, but that might not be enough. Too early to say.

1. Gimme Fiction
2. A Series Of Sneaks

3. Girls Can Tell
4. Soft Effects EP (essential listening!)

5. Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
6. They Want My Soul

7. Kill The Moonlight

8. Telephono
9. Transference
 
Tough call. Gax5 has a stronger opener and those first four tracks are all great, plus, it has Finer Feelings, which I think tops everything on the new one. While TWMS is being lauded for its experimentation and new sounds, The Ghost Of You Lingers was certainly a departure 2 albums ago.

Agree that Finer Feelings is a great under-rated song - but not that it's better than everything on TWMS.

I rank Ga lower than TWMS largely due to Ghost of You Lingers and Japanese Cigarette Case. Not because I don't like them - I love them, but really only in the context of the album as a whole. They just aren't songs I would listen to outside of listening to the album. Whereas I feel at this point I can listen to ALL of the songs on TWMS mixed in with other music. Although I suspect I may eventually tire of I Just Don't Understand.

I think every album has literally been better than the one before it, except put Transference somewhere around Girls Can Tell. So

They Want My Soul
Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
Gimme Fiction
Kill The Moonlight
Girls Can Tell/Transference
A Series of Sneaks
Telephono/Soft Effects (I still think of them as one because I got them packaged together)

But there's also some great one-offs: The Book I Write from the Stranger Than Fiction soundtrack, the awesome Peace Like A River cover, All I Got Is Me from the B-side of Don't You Evah, the collaboration song with Bright Eyes "Let the Distance Bring Us Together Again", I Didn't Come Here to Die from Love Ways EP. Lots of good stuff outside the albums.
 
TWMS has a stronger back half from where I'm at now, but that might not be enough. Too early to say.

I listened to those two back-to-back today as well and had the opposite reaction. Gax5 steadily built steam as it went on, whereas They Want My Soul came roaring out of the gate and then dwindled a little, at least to my ears.

I'm definitely curious to hear Transference now given how low everyone seems to rate it.
 
So can I ask what gripes people have with Transference? Not trying to be contrarian here, but of the six Spoon albums I've heard, it's my favorite. It seems to be the most varied, and the songs having a little rough edge to them gives the band more grit than they typically have. Damn good album IMO.
 
Just not a lot of standout tracks for me. Mystery Zone, Out Go the Lights and Trouble Comes Running are excellent but I can't remember how most of the tracks go once I return to the album. Too many songs seem to rely more on aesthetic qualities than quality songwriting (Who Makes Your Money, for example, which sounds awesome but goes nowhere).

It's an enjoyable and creative listen, but when you compare it to the songcraft on Girls Can Tell, for instance, it just falls apart. There's a reason I return to it less than their other 21st century albums.
 
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Mystery Zone, Out Go the Lights and Trouble Comes Running are excellent but I can't remember how most of the tracks go once I return to the album.

I can see that - there wasn't anything on Transference that immediately lodged in my brain like Do You, I Turn My Camera On, or That's the Way We Get By. That said, with Transference I felt like I had just listened to an album rather than a collection of songs.

Re: songcraft - whenever I hear that term, I always think of a kind of detached professionalism, and while I respect that in Spoon, it often lends the songs something of a generic feel. Gimme Fiction was the worst offender in this regard; Sister Jack especially could have been written and performed by probably a hundred different bands. I didn't find any such tracks on Transference.
 
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