Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga

Anti

Spoon belong to a group of bands whose brand of leftfield, radio-friendly rock songs are destined to be criminally ignored, but who could legitimately claim to be the ‘best band you’ve never heard of’. Among these are Call And Response, Built To Spill and the wonderful, but now heart-breakingly defunct Guided By Voices.

‘Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga’ is the band’s sixth album and continues the trend of modest decline with each successive release. That is not to say that this is a bad album. Most bands would kill for the tunes that Britt Daniels discards, but Spoon suffer from the standards they set with 1998’s near faultless ‘A Series Of Sneaks.’ The tunes remain impossibly catchy but the quirks and subtle nuances that first attracted our attention, have been replaced by a more straightforward songwriting style.

On first listen songs like ‘Rhythm And Soul’ sound like M.O.R. chancers The Feeling, but more appropriate reference points are Pixies, Pavement or early Super Furry Animals. In fact ‘The Ghost Of You Lingers’ could have slipped unnoticed onto ‘Outspaced’.

There are a few glimpses of the ‘old’ Spoon’s off-kilter rhythms, but they are too fleeting on an album that is too direct and too polished to be great. Still pisses on the last two Kings Of Leon albums, though.

Words_ Kenny Murdock

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

DOWNLOAD: ‘Don’t Make Me A Target’, ‘The Underdog’
FOR FANS OF: Pavement, Brendan Benson

Issue #52 - Very Bro-some

Featuring Panama Kings, ASIWYFA, an investigation into DIY touring, details of what over 25 of the finest NI bands are up to in 2009 and much more.