Haven't been around here for a while, but since this album is SO ****ing awesome I guess I had to post.
This album is not just a pre-Gagaga record, it's pre-Gimme Fiction too - but post-Girls Can Tell. The nearest comparison is probably Kill The Moonlight - but only in terms of the heavily stripped down production aesthetics. Essentially it's really an animal of its own, though of course it is quite unmistakably Spoon.
The songs have a real demo-ey feel to them. Verse-Chorus structure has larged been eschewed in favour of playing around and building upon single motifs - something Spoon have a real knack for, but it shows here possibly more so than elsewhere in their ouvre.
I can see how Gagaga (rather than Spoon) fans are likely to find the record something of a letdown. Gagaga was so immediate and catchy, you required little convincing: it was love at first listen. In that sense, this album constitutes quite a profound deviation. These are songs that take some sinking in. The material is heavier, more difficult if you will. But they retain all the key characteristics that make Spoon what they are, and once you get into the songs, you won't want to put them away.
If you like Spoon in any sense at all then this must be given a go.
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