Spoon
Indie Rock / Alternative
Since 1994, the duo of vocalist/guitarist Britt Daniel and drummer Jim Eno have been the authors of an unlikely success story, making the quantum leap(s) from critical pariahs in the mid 90's, to respected indie rock journeymen by the turn of the century, to their current rarified status as America's bravest, most challenging rock band. That all of the above has been accomplished sans gimmickry and far from the New York/LA/London axis, is less interesting than the strength of Spoon's ouvre.
Working with a succession of bass and keyboardists over the years (at least half of whom have left on amicable terms), Daniel and Eno's arc is more impressive than any of their contemporaries; had they peaked creatively with the minimalist art-punk of 1998's A Series Of Sneaks, Spoon's status as one of the Great Neglected Underground Bands would've been assured. Instead, they rebounded with two of the most stirring, multi-dimensional pop recordings of recent years in 2000's Girls Can Tell and their commercial breakthrough, 2002's Kill The Moonlight.
The new CD/LP,Gimme Fiction, is nothing short of a dizzying, soulful masterpiece, easily the most expansive work in Spoon's career. Recorded throughout 2004 at Eno's Public Hi-fi studio in Austin with the production help of Mike McCarthy (...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead), Gimme Fiction is the sound of a band who, having long since found their own voice, are making the catchiest, most confident rock'n'roll of any group on the planet. Though there are still echoes of some of Britt Daniel's influences (Eddie Money not amongst them), Gimme Fiction is a sprawling, exhilarating, filler-free album of keenly focused artistic vision & ambition.
With one or two notable exceptions (the "Emotional Rescue"-esque "I Turn My Camera On" chiefly amongst them), Gimme Fiction isn't nearly as sparse as Kill The Moonlight or Girls Can Tell ; the ecstatic "Sister Jack" is as neat an example of tape-recorder-as-musical-instrument as this writer has ever heard. Lyrically, while not wishing to diminish his past work, Fiction is Britt Daniel's most thoughtful album to date; whether picking apart relationships or the state of the universe, the songcraft is stunning without ever feeling labored.
In short, Gimme Fiction feels like as big a creative leap from Kill the Moonlight as Girls Can Tell was from A Series Of Sneaks. And it still sounds like Spoon.
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