Here is the question: Can Spoon make a bad album?
So far, the answer: No.
This is my favorite album of 2014 so far. I’ve listened to it straight through over and over like a mental patient.
But many folks may say this one isn’t really all that different from “Girls Can Tell” or “Kill the Moonlight.” My first response would be: Why is that a problem? But my second would be that you need to listen more closely. It’s bigger. Much bigger. They’re not trying to make pop music anymore, they embody it.
Yes, They Want My Soul hews closer to the band’s rhythmic base after Transference played with longer-form songs that almost turned into jam sessions. But listen to a song like “Inside Out,” with its ambient solo in the middle. Or the bluesy “I Just Don’t Understand.” The band has never sounded this tight before. It’s almost like their jazzy improv period from 2010 to 2014 brought made them even better at their structured, hypnotic sound. And the vocals…Wow.
If you don’t like this album, you just don’t like good music.
